Posted on 08/20/2009 1:50:06 PM PDT by khnyny
Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?
MSNBCs Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game.
Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Maes main defenders in the House Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.
The media coverage of Franks coziness with Fannie Mae and his pro-Fannie Mae stances has been lacking. Of the eight appearances Frank made on the three broadcasts networks between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2008, none of his comments dealt with the potential conflicts of interest. Only six of the appearances dealt with the economy in general and two of those appearances, including an April 6, 2008 appearance on CBSs 60 Minutes were about his opposition to a manned mission to Mars.
Frank has argued that family life should be fair game for campaign discussion, wrote the Associated Press on Sept. 2. The comment was in reference to GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter. Theyre the ones that made an issue of her family, the Massachusetts Democrat said to the AP.
The news media have covered the relationship in the past, but there have been no mentions since 2005, according to Nexis and despite the collapse of Fannie Mae.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessandmedia.org ...
Fanny Mae: appropriate. Wonder who comes out on top?
Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection...
This isn’t really news...its pretty well known that Barney loves Fannies.
goes together somehow? (faggot pos)
I don't think it counts as romance if fecal matter is involved.
To even ask the question: “Is the media playing favorites” shows how stunningly out of touch the author of this piece is.
This question was answered long ago-the media and the Democrat party are one and the same.
Barney Frank called Herb Moses his “spouse”.
Something about that sentence just isn't right.
In a “NORMAL” world, Barney Frank would be in jail for either the male prostitution out of his house or what he did with Freddie and Fannie. Unfortunately, it is politically incorrect to charge gay politicians with crimes. Toss the bum in jail and throw away the key. He would probably enjoy it.
There's no accounting for taste.
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
Quote in article from 2003 by Barney Frank:
‘’These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’’ said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘’The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’’
YES- BARNEY SHOULD BE IN JAIL.
“taste” and “fecal matter” should never be used in the same post.
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefited from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Franks efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Franks partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agencys push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannies assistant director for product initiatives.
Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie. Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Critics, however, remain skeptical. Its absolutely a conflict, said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane? If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least whats not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane, added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. But everybody wants to avoid it because hes gay. Its the quintessential double standard.
A top GOP House aide agreed. Cmon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws? the aide told FOX News. No media ever takes note?
Imagine what would happen if Franks political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxleys wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCains wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nations housing and banking laws.
Franks office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress. I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus, Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover.
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses helped develop many of Fannie Maes affordable housing and home improvement lending programs. Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last months government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.
Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants.
In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
Three years later, President Clintons Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of todays economic crisis. I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Clinton said recently.
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Let The Inquisition Start With Barney Frank
Investor's Business Daily | 3/6/09
FR Posted on 03/08/2009 by FreeManN
Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn't agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he'll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called "a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator." Frank: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's point man in Washington.
For Frank, perhaps more than any single individual in private or public life, is responsible for both the housing market mess and subsequent bank disaster. And no, this isn't partisan hyperbole or historical exaggeration.
But first, a little trip down memory lane. (Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorial.com ...
(Bloomberg) A Senate investigation into whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's charitable foundations violated lobbying and campaign finance laws will also look at groups run by other U.S. companies, the senator leading the probe said. The Senate Finance Committee "started with Fannie and Freddie; others are now being included," committee Chairman Charles Grassley said yesterday.
While declining to identify the other firms, the Iowa Republican said, "I'm making sure that it doesn't look like we're just after Fannie and Freddie." Grassley declined to disclose the amount of money involved in any questionable campaign giving by the charitable foundations of the two government-chartered mortgage-finance companies. The panel hasn't set a target date for ending the probe, Grassley told reporters.
I suppose not.
Frank is the poster child for strict TERM LIMITS!
MAY WE ASK - WHY this completely corrupt fruitcake is still dragging about the halls of our government?
Frank is a FRAUD AND A THIEF.
Get this headcase OUT now!
Mortgages are from Fannie......Barney, is from Uranus.
Of the eight appearances Frank made on the three broadcasts networks between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2008, none of his comments dealt with the potential conflicts of interest... Frank has argued that family life "should be fair game for campaign discussion," wrote the Associated Press on Sept. 2. The comment was in reference to GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter. "They're the ones that made an issue of her family," the Massachusetts Democrat said to the AP. The news media have covered the relationship in the past, but there have been no mentions since 2005, according to Nexis and despite the collapse of Fannie Mae.In Barney's defense, gargling on another man's hoo-ha isn't really about family.
MSM bias - getting hard to ignore.
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