Just before the debate, we had FOX News on and weren’t really paying attention. So it took me a second to realize that was Barney Frank on TV… talking to O’Reilly. Knew it would only take a second for that to explode:
All I can say is Bill O’Reilly really got him on this one. He should be made to step down, or if he won’t I think the people who bought stock on his word should be allowed to
1. lynch him or
2. tar and feather him and run him out of town on a rale.
Oh darn is that giving my age away!!!!
I can certainly appreciate and empathize with O’Reilly’s ire. And Frank deserved a trip to the woodshed. But there is a plethora of Frank quotes defending FannieMac and OReilly should’ve have buried him in them. Frank would’ve poo-poohed all of them but “the folks” needed to see that this was a pattern of behavior with Frank, not just one CNBC interview gaffe.
I’m not a big fan of how O’Reilly approached that — it was kind of gotcha journalism — taking one statement out of context, and then claiming people relied on it to invest — don’t get me wrong — I’m totally interested in determining who is to blame, but I can’t get over the fact that if the democrats were in control of the white house from 2000-2008, and had the congress for the better part of the last 10 years, I would be laying this all at their feet — i have yet to see a good, neutral examination of the root causes of the failure
i also can’t find a detailed examination of the entire bailout plan, which, quite embarrisingly with the entire world watching, Congress could not resist turning into a big pork barrel boon-doggle to get passed
1. Bill Clinton’s administration put pressure on the Fed to begin making stupid decisions about mortgage lending – unnaturally creating home ownership as a kind of additional welfare program. Apparently home ownership is now one of the “human rights” like health care that isn’t really mentioned in the Constitution.
2. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were created to oversee this socialist handout and to hold the paper on the loans. They were headed, of course, by Clinton cronies. This initial government interference in the home lending market lies at the root of the problem. I don’t know why nobody’s talking about it.
3. Almost immediately, some in government began to see that this was going to end badly, when the people who received those loans would almost certainly default on them. They began to sound the alarms, to no avail.
4. More people began talking about the potential problem, but were ignored.
5. Some in Congress began trying to increase oversight, probably too late anyway.
6. Homeowners began to default (duh)
7. The mortgages had eventually been “bundled” with other less-risky mortgages and sold as securities on the market. Those securities were risky and everyone knew it – but they bought them all over the world in a colossal myopic orgy of greed.
8. The securities lost most of their value, of course. Fannie and Freddy failed, and their CEOs (the Clinton cronies mentioned above) jumped with their golden parachutes. All during this process, Barney Frank, the head of the House Committee which had responsibility for overseeing Fannie and Freddie continued to deny that there was any problem.
9. You know the rest of the story. This is not as much a bailout as a $700B socialist program. Typical.
I’m no economist, so correct me if I’m wrong, you numbers folks out there.
Barnie was hard to understand with that voice that sounds like he is gargling gooo. Its about time someone treat these jackass democrats the way they deserve. Regarding previous commentors usage of the word “greed”. Had our government / FED reserve not maintained 0% or worse negative interest rates the speculation would have been reasonable. If you read about the various other panics of American history you will see excessive scrit issuance is at the root of all of them. The link in my comment leads to short arty that contains links to history of other panics. I suggest you read them.
It’s a shame we’ve got so many legislators that are supposed to represent us, defend us, stand up against those who would do harm to our country, and it takes an idiot like Bill O’Reilly to FINALLY ask Barney Frank what the hell he was thinking when he helped cause this giant, corrupt mess. And still, today, I’ve yet to see one republican head to a microphone to call for congressional hearings on Frank, Dodd and Paulson.
The main problem with O’Reilly, and it is really clear here, is he’d rather yell that the person is full of crap for five minutes than point out unrelentingly the many instances in which they are full of crap. Barney Frank should have been pimp-slapped for the issue O’Reilly brings up, but he should have ALSO been pimp-slapped for his grandstanding with Pelosi accusing 12 republicans of being unpatriotic and childish while giving a pass to the 95 democrats they supposedly lead. I would have asked him if he’s such a finance genius, why can’t he figure out that 95 votes you lead is a bigger issue than 12 votes you oppose? I wouldn’t let this guy make change at McDonalds, let alone chair a committee of foxes in the hen-house.
Holy cow, if that’s what Frank looks like *after* they put on TV makeup to make him look better, I really don’t want to see him without makeup.
Probably some mix between Freddy Krueger and Jason-sans-the-hockey-mask.
It was a blown opportunity, yes, but it was also very cathartic. Unfortunately, assuming that there are other MSM interviews with Frank, no one’s going to ask him the hard ball questions, like, “…No, really, WTF were you thinking?” or “In the time that you were throwing gasoline on the campfire to start this economic breakdown, if you were asked ‘what kind of tree would you be’, what would it be?”
“How can you take that guy seriously the way he mumbles? He sounds like a cartoon character. Will he gladly pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today?”
Actually, I was thinking of Mumbles, of old Dick Tracy lore. Actually, now I think of it, he *does* kinda look like him…. …?
I just can’t picture McCain as Dick Tracy, though. However, Palin…HotAir does have a pic of her on the front page holding a gun that, with a little Photoshop magic, I could see as the wrist-watch-wearing G-man.
Frank said “It’s not the best investment”. He never said it was a bad investment. The term “it’s no the best investment” can be used on almost every investment, except for the investment that is the best investment. You try to invest when price is low (hence in decline) with the expectations (like Frank said, he saw it doing better) that it will go up.
I didn’t care for the ranting, but O’Reilly’s point of if this was the private sector, Frank would be out on his ass, is completely correct.
I am in Frank’s district, write me in on November 4th!!!
[Everybody stop calling him “Frank.” Call him Barney. -Ed.]
I am a fan of Bill’s but (I have not seen the video just read the transcript) this was really not what he should have jumped Frank on. BF has said SOOOOOOO many other things about Freddy his wife Fanny being in good shape those were the things he should have gone after him on not this crap. This crap could have been taken many many different ways but when he argued the GOP was looking to fix something that wasn’t broken that is enough to get him fired not this. Very disappointed in Bill on this one.
The bailout passed. McCain’s last chance to win this election has passed.
McCain’s last chance to win was to oppose the bailout. Now that he has done the senatorial thing and sided with the controlling interests of the country they will have no more use for him. Obama suits their purpose much more and thus McCain can be tossed aside now.
The poor fool never saw it coming. Poor ass is so very senatorial down to the bone. He has steeped in it for so very long. You can see it when he drones on. You know the tone that causes you to lose focus about 15 seconds into his windy dissertation.
I am depressed about this bailout thing. Its looking pretty dark. It has to be pretty dark when I say “our only hope is a huge deep recession”…because without one this bailout will stand and economic democracy will be completely flushed.
I don’t know, Bill O’Reilly and then Palin yesterday. That was like dinner and dessert. I kept calling him Barney Fife by accident yesterday. How anyone could consider voting dem with these guys in the party is beyond me. I think whoever wins should make Pelosi ambassador to the antarctic. Doesn’t seem to me like she’d mind the temperature and those scientists at the cap deserve representation, too.
Freemon – it is dark, indeed. You know, nothing has made me laugh today. If we had a laugh-o-meter on the country, it would probably read near 911 levels.
Even ussjimmycarter isn’t making me laugh, which is very unusual.
USS Jimmy Carter. I can see that one. Piloted by Obeast Viking Women with penis horns on their helmets shouting we have comprehensive everything. ( remember how he used to say COMPREHENSIVE as often as Carl Sagan said “billions and billions” ? )
I have to tell you Jimmy Boy….. I am actually rooting for a depression level economic event. Only these Jack Hoffs in congress / Whitehouse could make me this dark. They act like it is still 1932. Communications are alot better now days. We don’t have to fear a 12 year depression any more. It would reboot alot more quickly. They are actually probably doing something that will make conditions WORSE next year. And Bush was right there ready to sign like a fool.
I used to scoff at the idea of a ruling elite in this country but circumstances have me thinking again. Its like someone really with alot pull got to them all.
Barney Frank hovered over the waters of the American Dream. He cast his gaze apon it and lo, he saw that it was not good. The waters corressponedeth not with his inner eschaton. Barney willed that all things should be equal and lo, he spaketh his Word unto reality –
“ye Racist lenders shall lend equally to all balkangroups, or face my judgement”
And yea, the corrupt ones – George and John – did attempteth to again free the Racists to discriminate by regulating the equalizing froth unleashed by Barney’s Word and lo did the Purehearts stop them. And lo, something went wrong but still Barney doubteth not the efficacy of pureheartedness…
Are bankers so racist that they would neglect to give money making loans to people because of the colour of their skin? Guess they aren’t so greedy after all – letting principles like hatred get in the way of growing their paychecks.
Is there a person in the world other than liberals who does not understand that some minority groups are in a disadvanted position for whatever reason and so by definition are not in the same position to afford homes? What? Some minority groups don’t own as many homes? The lenders must hate them!
Is Barney Frank racist now that minorities bear the disproportionate burden of his generous debt?
How can people be so stupid? How can people be so stupid? How can people be so stupid? How?
This is like watching the video of the pro democracy protests in China’s Tiananmen Square and rooting for the tanks. One lone person (read idiot in Barney’s case) standing against superior fire power and professional ability.
If he were just more like a human being one could feel some sympathy for him. Still even a pansy should know you don’t take a limp stalk of celery into a knife fight.
Instead of explaining why he’s an idiot, I’M JUST GOING TO SCREAM AT HIM!
Freaking O’Reilly.
All I can say is Bill O’Reilly really got him on this one. He should be made to step down, or if he won’t I think the people who bought stock on his word should be allowed to
1. lynch him or
2. tar and feather him and run him out of town on a rale.
Oh darn is that giving my age away!!!!
I can certainly appreciate and empathize with O’Reilly’s ire. And Frank deserved a trip to the woodshed. But there is a plethora of Frank quotes defending FannieMac and OReilly should’ve have buried him in them. Frank would’ve poo-poohed all of them but “the folks” needed to see that this was a pattern of behavior with Frank, not just one CNBC interview gaffe.
I’m not a big fan of how O’Reilly approached that — it was kind of gotcha journalism — taking one statement out of context, and then claiming people relied on it to invest — don’t get me wrong — I’m totally interested in determining who is to blame, but I can’t get over the fact that if the democrats were in control of the white house from 2000-2008, and had the congress for the better part of the last 10 years, I would be laying this all at their feet — i have yet to see a good, neutral examination of the root causes of the failure
i also can’t find a detailed examination of the entire bailout plan, which, quite embarrisingly with the entire world watching, Congress could not resist turning into a big pork barrel boon-doggle to get passed
I’m not a big O’Reilly fan but, when I saw that last night I stood up and cheered.
I think I can sort of sum this up, actually.
1. Bill Clinton’s administration put pressure on the Fed to begin making stupid decisions about mortgage lending – unnaturally creating home ownership as a kind of additional welfare program. Apparently home ownership is now one of the “human rights” like health care that isn’t really mentioned in the Constitution.
2. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were created to oversee this socialist handout and to hold the paper on the loans. They were headed, of course, by Clinton cronies. This initial government interference in the home lending market lies at the root of the problem. I don’t know why nobody’s talking about it.
3. Almost immediately, some in government began to see that this was going to end badly, when the people who received those loans would almost certainly default on them. They began to sound the alarms, to no avail.
4. More people began talking about the potential problem, but were ignored.
5. Some in Congress began trying to increase oversight, probably too late anyway.
6. Homeowners began to default (duh)
7. The mortgages had eventually been “bundled” with other less-risky mortgages and sold as securities on the market. Those securities were risky and everyone knew it – but they bought them all over the world in a colossal myopic orgy of greed.
8. The securities lost most of their value, of course. Fannie and Freddy failed, and their CEOs (the Clinton cronies mentioned above) jumped with their golden parachutes. All during this process, Barney Frank, the head of the House Committee which had responsibility for overseeing Fannie and Freddie continued to deny that there was any problem.
9. You know the rest of the story. This is not as much a bailout as a $700B socialist program. Typical.
I’m no economist, so correct me if I’m wrong, you numbers folks out there.
Barnie was hard to understand with that voice that sounds like he is gargling gooo. Its about time someone treat these jackass democrats the way they deserve. Regarding previous commentors usage of the word “greed”. Had our government / FED reserve not maintained 0% or worse negative interest rates the speculation would have been reasonable. If you read about the various other panics of American history you will see excessive scrit issuance is at the root of all of them. The link in my comment leads to short arty that contains links to history of other panics. I suggest you read them.
How can you take that guy seriously the way he mumbles? He sounds like a cartoon character. Will he gladly pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today?
It’s a shame we’ve got so many legislators that are supposed to represent us, defend us, stand up against those who would do harm to our country, and it takes an idiot like Bill O’Reilly to FINALLY ask Barney Frank what the hell he was thinking when he helped cause this giant, corrupt mess. And still, today, I’ve yet to see one republican head to a microphone to call for congressional hearings on Frank, Dodd and Paulson.
The main problem with O’Reilly, and it is really clear here, is he’d rather yell that the person is full of crap for five minutes than point out unrelentingly the many instances in which they are full of crap. Barney Frank should have been pimp-slapped for the issue O’Reilly brings up, but he should have ALSO been pimp-slapped for his grandstanding with Pelosi accusing 12 republicans of being unpatriotic and childish while giving a pass to the 95 democrats they supposedly lead. I would have asked him if he’s such a finance genius, why can’t he figure out that 95 votes you lead is a bigger issue than 12 votes you oppose? I wouldn’t let this guy make change at McDonalds, let alone chair a committee of foxes in the hen-house.
Holy cow, if that’s what Frank looks like *after* they put on TV makeup to make him look better, I really don’t want to see him without makeup.
Probably some mix between Freddy Krueger and Jason-sans-the-hockey-mask.
It was a blown opportunity, yes, but it was also very cathartic. Unfortunately, assuming that there are other MSM interviews with Frank, no one’s going to ask him the hard ball questions, like, “…No, really, WTF were you thinking?” or “In the time that you were throwing gasoline on the campfire to start this economic breakdown, if you were asked ‘what kind of tree would you be’, what would it be?”
“How can you take that guy seriously the way he mumbles? He sounds like a cartoon character. Will he gladly pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today?”
Actually, I was thinking of Mumbles, of old Dick Tracy lore. Actually, now I think of it, he *does* kinda look like him…. …?
I just can’t picture McCain as Dick Tracy, though. However, Palin…HotAir does have a pic of her on the front page holding a gun that, with a little Photoshop magic, I could see as the wrist-watch-wearing G-man.
Frank said “It’s not the best investment”. He never said it was a bad investment. The term “it’s no the best investment” can be used on almost every investment, except for the investment that is the best investment. You try to invest when price is low (hence in decline) with the expectations (like Frank said, he saw it doing better) that it will go up.
I didn’t care for the ranting, but O’Reilly’s point of if this was the private sector, Frank would be out on his ass, is completely correct.
I am in Frank’s district, write me in on November 4th!!!
[Everybody stop calling him “Frank.” Call him Barney. -Ed.]
O’Reilly had his panties in a wad. Barney had a wad in his panties.
I am a fan of Bill’s but (I have not seen the video just read the transcript) this was really not what he should have jumped Frank on. BF has said SOOOOOOO many other things about Freddy his wife Fanny being in good shape those were the things he should have gone after him on not this crap. This crap could have been taken many many different ways but when he argued the GOP was looking to fix something that wasn’t broken that is enough to get him fired not this. Very disappointed in Bill on this one.
The bailout passed. McCain’s last chance to win this election has passed.
McCain’s last chance to win was to oppose the bailout. Now that he has done the senatorial thing and sided with the controlling interests of the country they will have no more use for him. Obama suits their purpose much more and thus McCain can be tossed aside now.
The poor fool never saw it coming. Poor ass is so very senatorial down to the bone. He has steeped in it for so very long. You can see it when he drones on. You know the tone that causes you to lose focus about 15 seconds into his windy dissertation.
I am depressed about this bailout thing. Its looking pretty dark. It has to be pretty dark when I say “our only hope is a huge deep recession”…because without one this bailout will stand and economic democracy will be completely flushed.
I don’t know, Bill O’Reilly and then Palin yesterday. That was like dinner and dessert. I kept calling him Barney Fife by accident yesterday. How anyone could consider voting dem with these guys in the party is beyond me. I think whoever wins should make Pelosi ambassador to the antarctic. Doesn’t seem to me like she’d mind the temperature and those scientists at the cap deserve representation, too.
It’s true Barney mumbles but we don’t know if he swallows or not…
Freemon – it is dark, indeed. You know, nothing has made me laugh today. If we had a laugh-o-meter on the country, it would probably read near 911 levels.
Even ussjimmycarter isn’t making me laugh, which is very unusual.
USS Jimmy Carter. I can see that one. Piloted by Obeast Viking Women with penis horns on their helmets shouting we have comprehensive everything. ( remember how he used to say COMPREHENSIVE as often as Carl Sagan said “billions and billions” ? )
I have to tell you Jimmy Boy….. I am actually rooting for a depression level economic event. Only these Jack Hoffs in congress / Whitehouse could make me this dark. They act like it is still 1932. Communications are alot better now days. We don’t have to fear a 12 year depression any more. It would reboot alot more quickly. They are actually probably doing something that will make conditions WORSE next year. And Bush was right there ready to sign like a fool.
I used to scoff at the idea of a ruling elite in this country but circumstances have me thinking again. Its like someone really with alot pull got to them all.
Barney Frank hovered over the waters of the American Dream. He cast his gaze apon it and lo, he saw that it was not good. The waters corressponedeth not with his inner eschaton. Barney willed that all things should be equal and lo, he spaketh his Word unto reality –
“ye Racist lenders shall lend equally to all balkangroups, or face my judgement”
And yea, the corrupt ones – George and John – did attempteth to again free the Racists to discriminate by regulating the equalizing froth unleashed by Barney’s Word and lo did the Purehearts stop them. And lo, something went wrong but still Barney doubteth not the efficacy of pureheartedness…
Are bankers so racist that they would neglect to give money making loans to people because of the colour of their skin? Guess they aren’t so greedy after all – letting principles like hatred get in the way of growing their paychecks.
Is there a person in the world other than liberals who does not understand that some minority groups are in a disadvanted position for whatever reason and so by definition are not in the same position to afford homes? What? Some minority groups don’t own as many homes? The lenders must hate them!
Is Barney Frank racist now that minorities bear the disproportionate burden of his generous debt?
How can people be so stupid? How can people be so stupid? How can people be so stupid? How?
Was I the only one that caught Barney admitting to using partisan politics to cover his ass?? I’m beginning to think so. 🙁
This is like watching the video of the pro democracy protests in China’s Tiananmen Square and rooting for the tanks. One lone person (read idiot in Barney’s case) standing against superior fire power and professional ability.
If he were just more like a human being one could feel some sympathy for him. Still even a pansy should know you don’t take a limp stalk of celery into a knife fight.