The American Spectator : A New Opportunity for McCain

A New Opportunity for McCain

By Peter Ferrara on 10.1.08 @ 12:08AM

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the financial crisis is all due to the Bush Administration's "right wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no oversight, no regulation."

But at a hearing in the House in 2004, now available in video on YouTube, the Republicans sought to expand supervision and regulation, over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Federal regulators testified that the reckless financial practices of these two government-sponsored enterprises threatened the entire financial system. Republican after Republican called for a new regulatory authority to supervise Fannie and Freddie and impose standard bank regulation on them.

Franklin Raines, the former Clinton budget director who went on to serve as chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae, testified that the mortgage-related securities of these two organizations, which have now rocked the entire financial world, were "riskless." During his tenure, Raines criminally led Fannie Mae to falsify its books so that he would qualify for excessive bonuses and compensation eventually totaling $90 million.

But the Democrats excoriated the Republicans for criticizing the wonderful practices of Fannie and Freddie that had been so successful in achieving their goals of affordable housing. The Republican concerns for safety and soundness were dismissed as trumped up efforts to frame the brilliant leadership of Mr. Raines, and said to show once again that Republicans don't care about the middle class and the poor. Barney Frank, now chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, foolishly laughed off concerns over safety and soundness without offering any evidence to rebut these concerns. Instead, he shamefully led the Democrats in attacking the regulators, who had provided the evidence that Fannie and Freddie were increasingly threatening the safety and soundness of the entire financial system.

The following year John McCain was one of three co-sponsors of legislation to impose such regulatory supervision and controls over Fannie and Freddie. The Bush Administration supported this as well, in one of its four attempts to win legislative approval for such expanded regulatory authority. But the Democrats shouted these proposals down as an assault on affordable housing for the middle class and the poor.

So it was the Republicans who tried time and again to expand proper regulatory controls to prevent this crisis. And it was the Democrats who stopped them because such regulation threatened their policy of turning Fannie and Freddie into welfare programs. It is Chairman Barney Frank, not SEC Chairman Chris Cox, who should resign for his shameful and stupid role in creating this crisis. And if Franklin Raines is not prosecuted and sent to prison for his naked thievery, then we must let all of the Enron convicts out of jail and issue them a national apology.

Apart from this, there is no other instance in which deregulation or lack of regulation played any significant role in the current crisis. Just what "no regulation" was Nancy Pelosi talking about? Does she want the government to stare over the shoulders of all lenders and tell them what loans they can make and what loans they can't? Going all the way back to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, it is the government led by the Democrats and their "affordable housing" policies that have imposed increasingly onerous regulations on lenders, forcing them to make shaky loans to increasingly dubious borrowers on increasingly lax terms, and it is the failure of precisely these loans that is at the root of the current crisis. These are the people that are now going to save us with wise, judicious supervision and regulation?

On exactly what issue is Nancy Pelosi any more knowledgeable than Sarah Palin? Pelosi can't nearly match Palin's expertise on energy policy, nor Palin's record in cutting taxes and spending. In over 20 years in Congress, the ultra-left San Francisco Democrat has distinguished herself only in the mindless repetition of brain dead political propaganda, such as we saw at the beginning of this commentary.

The Democrats have assailed former Senator Phil Gramm for leading the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. But repeal of that outdated regulatory relic from the 1930s, which sought to separate commercial banking from investment banking, has played no role in this financial crisis. Even Clinton's Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has said as much. Indeed, exactly to the contrary, repeal of Glass-Steagall has been a major factor helping to counter the crisis. It is precisely that repeal that allowed Bank of America to buy out Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan to buy out Bear Stearns, and Barclays Bank to work on buying up the remains of Lehman Brothers. This silly charge is just old, Soviet style propaganda, completely divorced from reality, calculated to mislead the gullible.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, Books, NATO, Energy

davidn| 11.25.08 @ 11:39PM

US businessman: Russian communist told me in 1992
that America’s first communist president
would be Black man named Barack

The First Time I Heard of “Barack”
By Mr. Tom Fife
California businessman

During the period of roughly February 1992 to mid-1994, I was making
frequent trips to Moscow, Russia, in the process of starting a software
development joint-venture company with some people from the Russian
scientific community. One of the men in charge on the Russian side was named
V. M. He had a wife named T.M.
V. was a level-headed scientist while his wife was rather deeply committed
to the losing Communist cause - a cause she obviously was not abandoning.
One evening, during a trip early in 1992, the American half of our venture
was invited to V. & T.'s Moscow flat as we were about to return to the
States. The party went well and we had the normal dinner discussions. As the
evening wore on, T. developed a decidedly rough anti-American edge - one her
husband tried to quietly rein in.
The bottom line of the tirade she started against the United States went
something like this: "You Americans always like to think that you have the
perfect government and your people are always so perfect. Well then, why
haven't you had a woman president by now? You had a chance to vote for a
woman vice-president and you didn't do it." (She was referring to Geraldine
Ferraro.)
The general response went something along the lines that you don't vote for
someone just because of their sex. Besides, you don't vote for
vice-president, but the president and vice-president as a ticket.
"Well, I think you are going to be surprised when you get a black president
very soon."
The consensus we expressed was that we didn't think there was anything
innately barring that. The right person at the right time and sure, America
would try to vote for the right person, be he or she black or not.
"What if I told you that you will have a black president very soon and he
will be a Communist?"
The out-of-the-blue remark was met by our stares. She continued, "Well, you
will; and he will be a Communist."
It was then that the husband unsuccessfully tried to change the subject; but
she was on a roll and would have nothing of it. One of us asked, "It sounds
like you know something we don't know."
"Yes, it is true. This is not some idle talk. He is already born and he is
educated and being groomed to be president right now. You will be impressed
to know that he has gone to the best schools of Presidents. He is what you
call "Ivy League". You don't believe me, but he is real and I even know his
name. His name is Barack. His mother is white and American and his father is
black from Africa. That's right, a chocolate baby! And he's going to be your
President."
She became smug as she presented her stream of detailed knowledge and
predictions so matter-of-factly - as though all were foregone conclusions.
"It's all been thought out. His father is not an American black so he won't
have that social slave stigma. He is intelligent and he is half white and
has been raised from the cradle to be an atheist and a Communist. He's gone
to the finest schools. He is being guided every step of the way and he will
be irresistible to America."
We sat there not knowing what to say. She was obviously very happy that the
Communists were doing this and that it would somehow be a thumbing of their
collective noses at America: they would give us a black president and he'd
be a Communist to boot. She made it quite obvious that she thought that this
was going to breathe new life into world Communism. From this and other
conversations with her, she always asserted that Communism was far from
dead.
She was full of little details about him that she was eager to relate. I
thought that maybe she was trying to show off that this truly was a real
person and not just hot air.
She rattled off a complete litany. He was from Hawaii. He went to school in
California. He lived in Chicago. He was soon to be elected to the
legislature. "Have no doubt: he is one of us, a Soviet."
At one point, she related some sort of San Francisco connection, but I
didn't understand what the point was and don't recall much about that. I was
just left with the notion that she considered the city to be some sort of a
center for their activity here.
Since I had dabbled in languages, I knew a smattering of Arabic. I made a
comment: "If I remember correctly, 'Barack' comes from the Arabic word for
'Blessing.' That seems to be an odd name for an American." She replied
quickly, "Yes. It is 'African'", she insisted, "and he will be a blessing
for world Communism. We will regain our strength and become the number one
power in the world."
She continued with something to the effect that America was at the same time
the great hope and the great obstacle for Communism. America would have to
be converted to Communism and Barack was going to pave the way.
So, what does this conversation from 1992 prove?
Well, it's definitely anecdotal. It doesn't prove that Obama has had Soviet
Communist training nor that he was groomed to be the first black American
president, but it does show one thing that I think is very important. It
shows that Soviet Russian Communists knew of Barack from a very early date.
It also shows that they truly believed among themselves that he was raised
and groomed Communist to pave the way for their future. This report on
Barack came personally to me from one of them long before America knew he
existed.
Although I had never before heard of him, at the time of this conversation
Obama was 30+ years old and was obviously tested enough that he was their
anticipated rising s

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davidn| 11.26.08 @ 6:30AM

i hope you fools that voted for obama have a good grip on your money because he will tax us to death
INPEACH OBAMA NOW before it is to late he has not evn prove that he was born in the u.s yet and even if he was he lost hisrights when his mother moved him out of this country when he was 4acording to the constatution witch obama would love to tear up dont suit him he bought and paid for the election. for the morons that voted for him i hope you get what you deserve.
KICK HIM OUT OF OFFICE BEFORE IT IS TO LATE

davidn| 12.11.08 @ 12:15PM

now watch this crap obama was more then likely involved in this crap with the govener of his home state. i just hope this can be proved but goes on with what i have been saying he can not be trusted and this is just the begining just the tip of the ice berg so to speak you watch

The American Spectator

Comments

davidn| 11.25.08 @ 11:39PM

davidn| 11.26.08 @ 6:30AM

davidn| 12.11.08 @ 12:15PM

david n| 12.25.08 @ 7:09AM

davidn| 1.21.09 @ 3:19AM

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