Comments about ‘Freddie Mac waged secret fight’

The Democrats are just as complicit in the collapse. This will not stop us from electing true conservatives John McCain, Dew, Bishop, and Bennion Spencer.

The Democrats had already sold themselves out on this issue. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been their pet project for a long time.

"Not Buying It", your statement is very telling. Republicans and John McCain have been telling everyone that the failure to pass this Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae legislation was the cause of the current financial crisis. Their next line is that it is the Democrats fault for killing the bill.

Now faced with evidence that Republicans were complicit in taking money from lobbyists to kill the bill (and McCain's campaign manager lobbying for Freddie) you say you are not buying it.

If you actually read the article carefully, you will find that there is no place that says the Democrats were not at fault. Please read it again, there is nothing in the article clearing Democrats.

What is does make clear is that this is a bipartisan problem and not one that can be pinned only on Democrats as John McCain, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limpaugh would have you think.

Both parties are to blame, the sooner people accept that, or to use your terminology, "buy that" the sooner we can get our congress critters to do the non-partisan work necessary to clean it up.

And when they do, President Obama will be there to sign it into law.

So do we want McCain or Obama to keep us on this path of self destruction? Not me. There are more than two choices of candidates to elect to lead this country. McCain and Obama are puppet presidents that will continue the Bush Cartel type of government. Their public speaches are words in the wind telling people what they want to hear. We need an independent leader who is not obligated to lobbyist and special interest groups like Ron Paul. The news media has blacklisted every other candidate for president at the risk of being shut down if they don't comply. The "free press" (?) is owned by businesses and special interest government to control and censor the news reported to americans. The real truth is that we can't sustain our government operating as usual and we need major changes in leadership. Ron Paul is the real choice to bring us out of this depressionistic government that has put its people and our country in serious trouble as a soverign and self sufficient nation.

Braney Frank did more to bring down the economic system than any single person. He should be in jail.. don't even try to blame this on the Repulicans...

Thanks for the morning laugh! You obviously are not a true conservative if you think John McCain is! And your justification of "well, it's okay if our side did it because the Democrats did it too" is one of the primary reasons for the mess we're in. I'm constantly amazed at the ethical breaches and dishonesty that Utahns overlook in the Republican party simply because "they're our party." Sorry folks. God condemns evil on all sides.

Sign me, "A former lifelong Republican who finally realized that both major parties are full of corruption, and that I should learn to think for myself."

"The Democrats are just as complicit..." Of course, don't muddy the waters with actual facts about who is to blame. It will get in the way of electing more of the same people who perpetrated this mess.

Dude, pull the old head out. Stop seeing conspiracies behind every tree. The article isn't axe grinding. Preventing the greed and corruption in Washington goes beyond party and ideology. Your mind set is part of the problem.

Further proof that republicans are on the wrong path. They're not even on the right sphere.

So it turns out republicans and Mccain are in it up to thier nose holes just like the rest of them. This really should not be a shock to anyone. our system is broken and we are about to make a choice between the two parties that have brought us this mess? sadly there is little doubt that people will stick with the one that brought them.

It really is a set-up but the American people are blinded by untruths. Has anyone noticed how it takes 16 years to clean up the mess that a democrat makes in office. Look at Carter and Clinton. Carter gave away the Panama Canal and was spinless to take any action againt the Iranian terrorists who held our people hostage. As soon as a Republican took office, on that very day, the Iranians let the hostages go. Osama bin Laden along with Russia and Korea want to vote FOR Obama. When are you people going to wake up? Isn't one attack on our soil from terrorist enough? Everyone knows that a Democrat does NOT take action. Everyone knows that a Democrat takes from the hard working people of America and gives to the lazy users of America.

Here's the difference between a democrat and a republican:

The republican gives a hand UP

The democrat give had OUT's

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day (democrat)
Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime (republican)

Where's Obama's emotions and show of love for America? He never displays this. He just talks smooth.

No one who read and UNDERSTOOD the article could possibly believe that Republican senators were not significantly responsible for the measure to regulate the mortgage giants never making it to the floor. The lobbying firm was very successful in getting most of the senators it targeted, all Republicans, not to sign the committee chairman's letter. In return, it received bonus payments and additional business from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was only last month that Fannie Mae stopped paying ultra-lobbyist Rick Davis, Sen. John McCain's campaign manager, a monthly stipend.

Of course I'm just an unsophisticated taxpayer from "flyover country", but it seems to me for the "paltry" sum of $2 million the outing of the collapse of this financial house of cards was delayed. However the whole mess was going to out itself sooner or later.

Sold up the river once again by our politicians!

One politician got a sweetheart home loan from Countrywide, another had a sweetie working inside Fannie or Freddie (who cares which one at this point). Many others, including both presidential candidates, got contributions from Fannie/Freddie.

Both parties are much too silent about the root causes of this whole fiasco. When politicians are silent we all should realize something is "rotten in Denmark" (pardon me Denmark - no disrespect intended - it's just a way to interject the adjective "rotten" into this post).

Term limits to periodically clear the riff raff out of Washington, D.C. - that's a good start to righting the system's wrongs.

A failed effort by some Republicans to resolve the problem does not excuse the Democrats from having instituted, operated and carried the entire program since the beginning. In particular, if it was known that there were such serious problems where were the Demo's these last two years while they have had sufficient votes to resolve their mess?

Did anyone read this? The Democrats did NOT want this legislation. Some Republicans were trying to push it through. The lobbying efforts were to try to change some Republicans' minds to keep it from coming to a vote.

As I read it, every Democrat was complicit in ensuring that Fannie and Freddie were allowed to go unchecked. Unfortunately, some Republicans were as well so the bill never came up for a vote.

Let's face it. Corruption is rampant in Washington, on both sides of the aisle. Every last one of them should be thrown out of office. When will people wake up!

"The selling of America"... the price for greed.

I think it is funny that everytime the republicans try to claim Obama has a finger in the pie, 125,000 donations from Freddie mac and Fannie employees, they get caught with their whole hand in the pie, 250,000 for the convention, 2 million for the campaign managers firm from freddie mac.

To those who are attempting to pin this tail on the Republican elephant, re-read the article. Republicans were targeted because the Dems were already in the pocket of Fannie and Freddie. They needed the extra Republican votes to guarantee, in a Rep controlled Senate, that the bill would die. Notice the party line vote. Dems voted against Hagel's regulation bill, Reps voted for it.

It is true that there are cirty hands on the Rep side but to paint this crisis as the result of Rep deregulation is false on its face. Virtually every action that perpetuated the mess has Dem origins, and virtually every defeated regulatory or policy effort to reduce risk has Dem prints on the knife. Barney Frank is the poster boy for the Dem position by repeatedly and loudly claiming the F&F were sound institutions while allowing them to become nothing more than Jenga games waiting for that last piece to bring them down.

Here is the message of the article. VOTE OUT ALL THE BUMS, THEY ARE ALL CORRUPT. Whether they have a D next their name or an R is irrelevant. Power corrupts, absolute power absolutely corrupts. The secondary message of the article is the need for term limits. The founding fathers intended us to have citizen legislators, not career legislators. Serve your term, and then go back home. Those of you who think that ideology matters with either party need to get a wake up call. It is all about power, and both groups will say and do whatever they have to keep and gain power. The new President is not going to change the corruption that currently runs rampant in DC. Term limits that is the only solution

I personally am discouraged and feel sold "up the river" by all politicians. And why do I vote exactly? Money buys legislation, not integrity.
grrrr
sigh