Laying Blame

Here's a bizarre interview with Barney Frank (well not really that bizarre, it's MSNBC) wherein he says the Republicans are trying to 'blame' him and other Dems for the housing collapse.  Blame him?  The chair of the House banking committee during the collapse?  The hellyousay.    

Only a guy like Frank could sit there and talk about the collapse with a straight face but he knows his back is covered---the DNC talking point is to go after Gingrich for taking lobbying cash from the GSEs and the big boys have selective memories.  Frank even comically tried to place himself and Dodd as heroes for putting Fannie/Freddie into conservatorship.  Let's see, the GSEs were placed into conservatorship in SEPTEMBER 2008, just as the crisis began.  Frank took over the banking committee in January 2007.   That gap was not something the drooling Martin Bashir wanted to explore.

Matter of fact Bashir wasn't in the mood to refute any talking point or conjure any history, such as Franks's infamous CNBC interview in summer 2008 (that would be before the conservatorship) where he misled investors by saying the GSEs looked good 'going forward'.  Such spawned the great O'Reilly-Frank shouting match interview.  All now down Bashir's memory hole.

Also, Frank seemed to say the GSEs had 'not lost anything' since they put them into conservatorship, which is completely detached from reality considering they are requesting billions more in bailouts while their leadership gets criticized for passing out bonuses (but not by the president).  Why aren't the OWS folks occupying Barney Frank's street?  Yes, we know.  

Don't take this as an endorsement of Gingrich--his rise will be temporary in my opinion.  I said the same the last time he weighed running in 2008.  He's smart and knows more about government than any of the others but he'll have a tough time wriggling out of the various charges of hypocrisy and moral depravity.  Meanwhile there will be no memory hole for the pointy-headed debate moderator corps, who will no doubt be loaded for bear with all kinds of GSE history at the next debate in order to 'get' Newt for being snippy with their brethren.

But in doing so they will once again prove that the media in this country isn't a journalistic enterprise, just a personal attack machine for favored ideologies as pointed out by the idiotic Bashir interview with Frank.  Their refusal to go after the actual president for taking money from the GSEs in the same aggressive manner should have made that clear long ago.