Ground Zero & Barney Frank

Could it be that just a handful of individuals, maybe just one or two are responsible for this crisis, or, if not the scope of destruction, at least the birth of the event? The left tells us that there’s plenty of blame to go around, things are just too complex to isolate a primary cause or a villain.

But of course. Complexity provides shelter. Seeking shelter in this case - the Democratic party, and, Barney Frank specifically.

We isolated ground zero, our Heart of Darkness, very early on - the Democrat’s refusal to reform the twins, with Frank as the paladin in that effort. Now, figuring an offense to be the best defense, Frank of all people is seeking prosecution for those responsible for the meltdown! Hah! Too much! And that was indeed too much for the Investor’s Business Daily which puts a great big fat cross hair on Frank’s backside. From today’s editorial: "From the early 1990s on, many people both inside and outside Washington were alarmed by what they saw at Fannie and Freddie. Not Barney Frank: Starting in the early 1990s, he (and other Democrats) stood athwart efforts by regulators, Congress and the White House to get the runaway housing market under control. He opposed reform as early as 1992. And, in response to another attempt bring Fannie-Freddie to heel in 2000, Frank responded it wasn't needed because there was ‘no federal liability there whatsoever’. In 2002, Frank nixed reforms again. See a pattern here?"

Readers know the Bush administration pushed for major reform of the twins, reforms the NYT’s called, " the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." These were always blocked by the Dem’s, the last in ‘06, with Frank as one of the chief engineers in that effort.

Repeating what we have offered earlier, the IBD says that 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."

What was Frank thinking? We know the twins were a cash cow for him (and Dodd, and Clinton, and Obama). Could that have been it? The IBD guesses that it may have been his boyfriend at Fannie. Maybe that’s it. Whatever the motivation, those of our friends from the left who are a tad unhappy with their 401K need look no further.

Robert Craven