The Free Lance-Star flops again with an embarrassingly slanted analysis of the House vote on the financial rescue, blaming Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 8th) for the Republican vote and low income home buyers for the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
The Democrats voted 140 to 95 (60%) in favor and the Republicans voted 133 to 65 (68%) against. The editor favors the rescue plan, but somehow concludes the failure of Republicans to support the plan is Pelosi’s fault. What a remarkable perspective.
Not a word about the failure of Republican leader John “Cry Me a River” Boehner (R-OH 8th) to deliver his caucus. Not a word about Boehner’s and Eric Cantor’s (R-VA 7th) petty whining in response to Pelosi’s spot-on condemnation of the administration. Barney Frank (D-MA 4th) offered this summation:
There’s a terrible crisis affecting the American economy. We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis. And because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country. I mean, I would not have imputed that degree of pettiness and hypersensitivity.
“[We] don’t believe they had the votes, and I believe they’re covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes. But think about this. Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country. That’s hardly plausible. And there are 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if anybody insulted them.
“I’ll make an offer. Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they’ll now think about the country.
The only failure of leadership on this vote was that of Boehner. Nothing of this magnitude will pass this close to an election without bi-partisan support. Pelosi was not about to gift-wrap this as a campaign issue for Republicans. They simply didn’t have the political courage to stand with Democrats.
Regarding low-income home-buyers, the FLS should consider that “the massive breakdown of underwriting and extension of risky products far down the income scale (without bothering to even check on income) was primarily a post-2003 phenomenon.”
High priced loans like “exploding ARMs” and other “pernicious kinds of loans” are the natural outgrowth of a lax enforcement environment. It was this administration that stepped aside and let Wall Street spawn ever more exotic instruments with anemic regulation.
Filed under: Local Media, National Politics | Tagged: Boehner, Cantor, Frank, Joe Cocker, Pelosi, Rescue, Whiners
