Great News: Democrat Who Helped Cause Financial Collapse to Hold Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Hearings

Really gives you a secure feeling knowing the man who helped push the economy over the edge is going to be doing his best to help conceal his role.

Rep. Barney Frank & Co. are getting set for yet another hearing this week on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage lenders. Once again, they're not after the truth -- they're looking to conceal it.

The House Financial Services Committee chairman and his brethren on the left want you to believe they're making a good-faith effort to figure out what went wrong with Fannie and Freddie -- what mistakes led to their failure and takeover by the government during the 2008 financial collapse, and how to fix both institutions for the future.

In fact, what they'll deliver is more hot air from so-called "housing advocates" obscuring just how much Fannie and Freddie contributed to the housing bubble, the 2008 financial collapse and the Great Recession.

It's all meant to give lawmakers an excuse not to do what's necessary and prudent -- namely, kill Fannie and Freddie before they come back to do it all again.

The notion of "housing" as a God-given right had been promoted by people like Barney Frank for nearly two decades. Their vehicles to expand homeownership for all were "government-sponsored enterprises" Fannie and Freddie -- which, starting in the mid 90s, began buying up and placing guarantees on mortgages taken out by people with lower incomes and lousy credit histories.

Giving low-income people access to the housing market sounds nice enough -- but the reality was far different. Housing prices were bid up to levels that made repaying mortgages nearly impossible. When the bubble burst, the government "sponsored" agencies were in hock for billions -- and so was their "sponsor," the US taxpayer.

Of course if you listen to Obama, Frank and the rest of the Democrats all of this was Bush's fault or something.

Now facing a legitimate challenger in Sean Bielat, suddenly Frank isn't quite as belligerent as usual. Of course he still accepts no responsibility for his role in the housing meltdown.

What’s up? My guess: Barney’s on good behavior because the country’s angry. Lots of voters in his typically adoring 4th District are angry too.

So he’s taking no chances with Marine Reservist challenger Sean Bielat of Brookline who sounds reasonable and earnest, who looks all spit and polish on TV and who hopes to tie the financial collapse around the neck of Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

“I don’t think there’s been a single event I’ve gone to where that hasn’t come up,” said Bielat yesterday about Frank’s role in the meltdown. He also said Frank’s campaigning hard now - Bill Clinton came to town for him Sunday - because Frank “has seen the same thing in his internal polling that we’ve seen in ours.”

That is, said Bielat, a momentum shift - toward him.

So was the Clinton invite “desperate,” I asked Frank. No, he replied, talking a mile a minute. He said he thought of inviting Clinton at least six weeks ago.

How much of the Fannie and Freddie mess was his fault?

Almost diplomatically, Frank explained that he’s been the target of “mostly inaccurate” attacks by the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Poor baby.