John McCain Suspiciously Bringing Up Barney Frank a Lot
John McCain's entire hopes for winning the presidency now seem to rest on hoping that racist voters will recreate the "Bradley Effect" and refuse to vote for a black man.
But in case that doesn't work, he's got another ace up his sleeve: homophobes! And he's targeting them by routinely ripping into Congressman Barney Frank in his stump speech…
Much of John McCain's stump speech is devoted to warning voters about the fiscal dangers that would accompany a Barack Obama presidency, but lately McCain has been picking on a lower-profile bogeyman to make his case.
"And he can't do that without raising our taxes or digging us further into debt like Congressman Barney Frank promised to do," McCain said last night, causing a part-time rodeo arena to rumble with boos at the mention of the Massachusetts Democrat…
Frank yesterday dismissed McCain's words as "an appeal to prejudice" that he said reminded him of past Republican efforts to raise voter concerns about the prospect of congressmen Charles Rangel and John Conyers, who are black, becoming committee chairs.
"I'm flattered by this," said Frank, who is gay. "But I don't think I'm the single most important member of the House after Nancy Pelosi. There are also a lot of straight white men who are committee chairmen."
Picking on Barney Frank is certainly a little random, considering that he was recently in the national spotlight as the hero of the Wall Street bailout negotiations. He's also already the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and will certainly remain so whether or not Obama wins the presidency.
But he's gay! So that makes him a good target -– just ask former House majority leader Dick Armey, who infamously referred to Frank as "Barney Fag" in a radio interview.
Continuing with his prejudice-mongering, look for McCain to start attacking more Democratic "Others" into his stump speech: Rep. Tammy Baldwin (a lesbian), Rep. Jim Langevin (a quadriplegic), and Sen. Joe Lieberman (a Jew).
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I am deeply saddened that so many Americans feel that that presidential elections need to be about social issues and not economic or international issues.
I am deeply saddened too. It is apparent that the left cares little for the fact that Barney Frank was the father of the subprime debacle and his recent anointment as a hero of Wall St for his roll in the bailout of the mess he helped cause is a joke.
"Were you sleeping through Civics class?"
I have been asking the same question throughout this entire election..I really wish more people paid attention during Civic's – it would have paid off.
Frank as hero for bailout?
How bout him and Raines being part and parcel of the catalyst of the financial crisis?
Lest we forget that Fannie and Freddie's loose regulations and lack of oversight (blocked by the Dems) were undoubtedly the root cause of the financial falter.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not originate mortgages. More than 80% of subprime loans still outstanding were originated in 2004 through 2007. The top ten subprime loan originators in 2006 were: HSBC Finance, New Century Financial, Countrywide Financial, Citimortgage, WMC Mortgage, Fremont Investment and Loan, Ameriquest, Option One, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and First Franklin Financial.
In the secondary market In 2004, 2005 and 2006, securitized mortgages were 73%, 79% and 81% of all subprime mortgages. For the same three years, the total volume of subprime loans securitized was $521 billion, $797 billion and $814 billion respectively.
Almost none of those securities were issued by Fannie and Freddie. They were not in the business of purchasing and securitizing subprime mortgages, although they purchased some subprime mortgages to hold in portfolio, and issued about $6 billion in subprime securities in 2004 to 2006 (one-third of one percent of the market.) The top fifteen issuers of subprime mortgage-backed securities, accounting for about 75% of the market, in 2006 were: Countrywide, New Century, Option One, Fremont, Washington Mutual, First Franklin, Residential Funding Lehman Brothers, WMC, Ameriquest, Morgan Stanley, Bear Sterns, Wells Fargo Securities, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
Fannie and Freddie were bit players at best but don't let that stop you from deflecting blame away from the real culprits.
Whoever wrote the comment on FNMA is uniformed at best. The agencies did buy subprime loans also know as Alt -A loans, from all the suspects you mentioned, the result of which is apparent given the bailout. But don't let you're ignorance of the mortgage market keep you from publishing mis-information.
BTW Ol' Whip who do you think are the real culprit. Carfeful know, because I'm not a soccer mom, I know the answer.
There is no single culprit. It took a lot of idiots to make this mess. Govt officials (DEM and GOP) with overreaching deregulation, Loan originators pushing loans on folks that can't afford them. Folks who can't afford said loans agreeing to them, Inaccurate (and possibly fraudulant) credit ratings for MBS that were resold to the secondary market. Investment Banks not having a clue what kind of investments they were holding, take your pick. You seem to be some sort of self proclaimed expert so I would love to hear your take on it.
Never said I was an expert. But I couldn't agree more with your analysis. There were many participants in the comedy of errors that brought us this debacle. The rating agencies and the street were the biggest culprits in that they provided the vehicles that the banks road unwittingly into ruin.
Ellen Degeneres? Yes you. Come hither. Your Queen will have a word with you.
Thank you soooo much for coming out of the closet. I, too, have become a CNN junkie since this whole campaign started. I thought I was going crazy. I was about to slip to the vodka.
Oh, that's another thing. Thank you for all those wonderful vodka jokes. If I was sitting there with a bottle while watching your show, there was a good chance dinner wouldn't be on the table when the king got home. However, housework always came before vodka. We can't have our grandmother rolling over in her grave now can we?
Let me know if you need more people. I'll give you some of mine.