Frankly speaking

Drudge has the link today to last nights confrontation between Bill O'Reilly and Congressman Barney Frank. All I can say is thank God for O'Reilly. It is about time that somebody told off that jerk of a congressman.
Last week I listened to the 2005 hearings on Fanny and Freddie when Frank told his colleagues in the House that Fanny and Freddie were doing a greaat job and that there was no need for any additional regulation. Frank and the other Democrats were successful at that time im blocking any further regulation or oversight for Fanny and Freddie. Indeed, it was nauseating to listen to Maxine Waters lavishly praising the leadership of Franklin Raines at Fanny. Of course, not long afterwards, Raines was forced out at Fanny due to accounting scandals that he allowed to happen so that he could get his multi-million dollar bonuses as CEO. (It is also interesting to note that this same Franklin Raines is an Obama advisor on housing matters.)

Frank, however, was not finished. He has spent the last two years as committee chairman in Congress covering up the problems at Fanny and Freddie and now he wants to blame others for his own failures. The clip that O'Reilly played from an interview by Frank this past summer was a real eye opener. There was Frank actually telling people that while Fanny and Freddie may not have been the best investments in the past, they were strong going forward. Of course, two months later, both are bankrupt and taken over by the governement. While I can see why others may not have known the full extent of problems at Fanny and Freddie, Frank has no such excuse. He got full information on these companies which were directly under his committee's purview. So Frank misleads investors on the fate of the two companies and when O'Reilly calls him on it, Frank goes into classic political doublespeak. It's not his fault, he claims, but rather it stems from 1994. Bill calls that bull -- which it was. Frank blames the Republicans and talks about how he tried mightily to put further regulations on Fanny and Freddie. Once again, Bill properly calls that bull. In fact, Frank is the one who blocked further regulation.

Right now, Barney the purple dinosaur has more credibility on the economy than Barney the congressman.