Remember when Newt Gingrich engineered a shutdown of the federal government because Bill Clinton was mean to him on Air Force One? Remember how well that turned out for Republicans. You can't help but think back to that vanity and stupidity when you hear House Republicans saying that 12 of their number voted "no" on the bailout bill because the reliably obnoxious Nancy Pelosi hurt their feelings. Over at the Corner, Pete Wehner lights into them:
Can they be serious? Do they realize how foolish and irresponsible they sound? On one of the most important votes they will ever cast, insisting "the speech made me do it" is lame and adolescent. The vote, after all, was on the legislation, not the speech. And to say that a dozen members of your caucus voted not out of principle but out of pique is a terrible indictment of them. I hope we learn the names of these delicate figures whose feelings were so bruised and abused.
What unbelievably petty people.
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Simon
The time to take a stand against government distortion of the marketplace was back when the Community Reinvestment Act was passed,
I think we can all consider ourselves lucky that did pass, considering that a) CRA loans are less likely to fail than other loans, and b) banks are more likely to hold onto them, and thus less likely to have dumped them in the toxic securities market.
Seriously, it's a good thing that banks still have some good loans. (OTOH, it's been claimed that, at this point, the CRA was hardly affecting bank behavior at all, so it shouldn't actually get much credit either.)
As has been pointed out pretty much everywhere, 75% of subprime mortgages were made by companies not subject to CRA, the independent mortgage companies. They were making the craziest and wildest subprime loans, in fact, and creating all this toxic paper that banks were stupidly buying.
"Meanwhile, your shifting of blame to the Democrats for loans that are completely unrelated to this current mess is EPIC FAIL."
What then do you call the Dems' refusal to listen to the Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac regulators over the past three years? No, according to Bawney Fwank, "Evwything's just wondewful!" Even some of the Democrats are now saying, "We should have listened."
Wehner's outrage is misplaced. The two congressmen who said Pelosi's speech was to blame for the defeat were Boehner and Blunt, who voted FOR the bailout and urged their fellow Republicans to do the same.
The actual Republicans who voted AGAINST the bailout spoke eloquently about its flaws and offered market-oriented alternatives.
I'm sort of stunned that this blog is up in arms about phony comments made by Boehner, when multiple GOP congressional members have already eloquently explained their 'no' votes were acts of principled courage and conviction, and had nothing to do with Pelosi's execrable speech.
How about this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL36nwCSYUM
Any comments about how the Democrats willfully ignored the train wreck that GOP members could see clearly years ago and warned about?
Yes, the brilliant Rep. Frank is even in that video talking about how everything is just great! Safety and soundness is a "shibboleth"? Eat your words, Mr. Frank.
What is Nancy Pelosi whining about anyway? She voted for the bailout, for crying out loud.
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