Because getting to the source of the problem would be, like, messy — whereas pinning the whole crisis on fatcat CEOs and “greedy businesses” is a tried and true populist dodge.
From The Hill:
Congressional Democrats and Republicans traded accusations Monday over what and whom to blame for the financial crisis amid startling new revelations surrounding the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers investment bank.Democrats aimed their harshest attacks at deregulation and CEO pay, using former Lehman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld as an example during a recess hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) also released internal documents showing Lehman’s compensation committee recommended $20 million in “special payments†to three departing executives on Sept. 11, four days before the firm filed for bankruptcy.
Republicans, for their part, launched a campaign to pin the financial meltdown on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and attacked Waxman for not holding a hearing to dig into the now-nationalized mortgage giants.
“Any hearing on oversight that does not begin with Fannie and Freddie and [former Fannie Mae CEO] Franklin Raines will be a sham,†said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). “This is like investigating a train robbery and only talking to the dining car stewards.â€Â
The GOP attack from the dais came as the National Republican Campaign Committee and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent nearly simultaneous news releases criticizing Fannie and Freddie.
Boehner’s statement echoed Mica’s, saying, “Chairman Waxman’s refusal to hold hearings to examine their role says a lot about where the Democrats’ priorities lie.â€Â
The mortgage giants aren’t part of the five-hearing investigation Waxman is planning for the rest of October, but Waxman said he is looking into their failure. He said committee staffers are reviewing documents and he might call a hearing.
[my emphasis]
Any bets on whether those hearings take place after November 4…?
Waxman also retorted that looking back at Congress’s interaction with Fannie Mae could be dangerous territory for the GOP, since it controlled Congress for 12 years until 2007.
— And?
If there is Republican corruption, weed it out. If there is Democrat corruption, weed it out.
In short, fix the problem by first understanding it.
Ironically, Waxman claims that he doesn’t think “we ought to use these hearings to be partisan” — while at the same time eschewing bipartisanship because he intimates such could end in mutual embarrassment to both parties.
Funny that the Republicans pushing for the investigations into Fannie and Freddie are willing to take that chance, wouldn’t you say?
****
update: More at the Pub.
Comment by Dan Collins on 10/7 @ 10:35 am #
It’s a bit redolent of this.
Comment by kelly on 10/7 @ 10:35 am #
Porcine Waxman, Mr. bipartisan. Riiight.
Comment by SarahW on 10/7 @ 10:36 am #
Oh well. “Memory is a motherfucker”, and all that. *
Comment by Mr. Pink on 10/7 @ 10:36 am #
I wonder if Barney Frank would be able to stop himself from batting his eye lashes at his former lover during the hearings?
Comment by Mr. Pink on 10/7 @ 10:41 am #
Wouldn’t normally the press be doing it’s own investigative journalism into Fannie and Freddie? You know trying to tie it to certain politicians and CEO’s in order to personalize it and sell papers. Sex sells too so any relationship between members of Fannie or Freddie to a politician would be particuarly good to investigate too. Especially if that relationship could involve an abuse of power or conflict of interest. Oh wait they are all Dems never mind move along.
Comment by alppuccino on 10/7 @ 10:50 am #
“God Barney! You were a tiger last night! I could spoon with you all morning, but I have to get to work. Hey Barney-Buns, could you head off the investigation of some of our unethical business practices when you get a chance? You don’t want to be a bad Barney do you? Bad Barney. C’mere. Mmmmslobbermmmmmmmmmslobber.”
Comment by TaiChiWawa on 10/7 @ 10:52 am #
Barney says he will personally conduct a rigorous probe of Fannie using his back-channel connections.
Comment by SDN on 10/7 @ 10:52 am #
12 years (except for the Senate 2001-2002 (Jumpin Jim, anyone)) and except for needing 60 votes to take care of Dem filibusters…..
Comment by ThomasD on 10/7 @ 10:53 am #
Forget testimony by the likes of Raines, Gorelick, Johnson, etc. They are big fish, who will deploy squadrons of lawyers and PR flacks. They know they have nothing to fear, their appearance before any committees would be all but worthless.
It’s the hired guns - the actual lobbyists bought and paid for by Fanny/Freddie money that have the real dirt. Let us hear testimony about how they were paid and directed to sabotage any attempts at reform and oversight. Let us hear how they manipulated the American people with the American people’s own money. Put them all under subpoena and they’ll sing like there is no tomorrow, not a one of them could stand up to a perjury charge and there’s too damn many of them for the big fish to buy their silence.
Comment by cranky-d on 10/7 @ 10:57 am #
They probably already have, but once they realized that they would have to pretty much pin it on their party of choice, they decided to move on to more important topics, such as the real mother and father of Palin’s purported youngest child.
Comment by Bill Ayers on 10/7 @ 11:01 am #
A-fucking-men, Jeff.
Of course, we both almost certainly harbor partisan (even racist, if people of color fall under the microscope) motivations, if it gets folks of a certain party affiliation in trouble, regardless of how many folks of the other party persuasion also find trouble. Sacrificial goats, you know.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 10/7 @ 11:02 am #
Fuck. That was me.
Never met Barack Obama, either.
Comment by JD on 10/7 @ 11:03 am #
I wish this was surprising.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 10/7 @ 11:07 am #
Wouldn’t the time to find out who is in anyway responsible, be they Dem or Rep, be before the election so the voters can take the correct action and vote them out? I guess this guy wants to wait until they win reelection before finding out who fucked up. You know noone would want the politician with proverbial 90 grand in his freezer to get voted out of office. No let’s just wait until they get reelected so they can continue to fuck things up and just have really shitty poll numbers.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 10/7 @ 11:10 am #
Ric Keller is not getting my voice, even if it means that pompous windbag Alan Grayson gets it.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 10/7 @ 11:23 am #
vote, even
Comment by alppuccino on 10/7 @ 11:23 am #
Where’s the Newt petition? Vote now, Vote ‘em out now, Pay less.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 10/7 @ 11:23 am #
This right here is what the election should be about. Who caused this debacle and how we can prevent it from happening again.
Comment by Matt, Esq. on 10/7 @ 11:29 am #
Frank later announced that a special deal had been reached and OJ Simpson would be leading the investigation into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “We’ll find the real cheaters!!” said the Juice.
Comment by happyfeet on 10/7 @ 11:33 am #
You would think there would be one Democrat that wanted to get out from under this corruption. No such thing as a maverick Democrat I guess. Bunch of locksteppers.
Comment by ThomasD on 10/7 @ 11:44 am #
Many in the Senate who are responsible are not even up for re-election this go around.
Their time comes later, and the groundwork for their ouster needs to be laid carefully. Now is not really the time.
There probably are some dems who would be willing to weed out the corruption, but not while the party bosses stand hip deep in it.
Comment by charles austin on 10/7 @ 11:50 am #
The Democratic Party’s strategy seems to be to get Big Media and the public to focus on a couple of trees rather than the forest. Sadly, I’ll bet it works.
Comment by alppuccino on 10/7 @ 11:59 am #
“Barney? Are you awake? That mean old Hank Waxman called me today. He was really scaring me Barney! Can you talk to him? Hmmm can ya? Can ya? Mmmmmmmmmsmooch.”
Comment by nikkolai on 10/7 @ 12:00 pm #
Waxman still looks like a mutant. He must dissolve camera lenses.
Comment by Sigivald on 10/7 @ 12:02 pm #
To echo Kelly, Henry Waxman of all people calling for something to be non-partisan?
Comment by royf on 10/7 @ 12:16 pm #
sashal, cynn and thor must be so proud of their Democrat leadership.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 10/7 @ 12:20 pm #
Waxman also retorted that looking back at Congress’s interaction with Fannie Mae could be dangerous territory for the GOP, since it controlled Congress for 12 years until 2007.
Yes, and the hell with both of them but you’ll note that they’re being very protective of the GOP by not looking into this. Which is more likely: they want to keep the GOP from being hurt, or that they cannot find a way to make the GOP more the bad guys than the Democrats and are just keeping quiet about it?
Comment by happyfeet on 10/7 @ 12:26 pm #
I think also though the Democrats are more interested in exploiting the financial crisis to make a whole lot more socialisms than they are in exploiting the financial crisis in a strictly partisan way. This is too important for that. They can socialize all kinds of shit before people most people ever have any clue. They can let Baracky’s media play the partisan games while they keep their eyes on the prize.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty on 10/7 @ 12:32 pm #
Waxman also retorted that looking back at Congress’s interaction with Fannie Mae could be dangerous territory for the GOP, since it controlled Congress for 12 years until 2007.
Please. If there were anything that bad about Republicans and Fannie Mae in those past 12 years, Waxman, the Inspector Javert of the House, would be screaming it from the rafters. The fact that he isn’t is a flashing red light and siren that he knows how neck deep in sh*t he and his fellow Democrats are in that regard.
I say the Republicans should call Waxman’s bluff and demand that he hold hearings on Congress and Fannie Mae — and then hold a press conference to call him out for stonewalling every day that he doesn’t.
Comment by mojo on 10/7 @ 12:37 pm #
The eyes can be fooled, the ears deceived - but the NOSE knows!
Comment by Patrick on 10/7 @ 12:38 pm #
alppuccino, I threw up a little bit in my mouth over # 6. Could you please include some sort of warning in the future? Maybe TrollHammer needs a mod to screen out any mention of Barney Frank being a BSCM.
Comment by Bob Reed on 10/7 @ 1:16 pm #
They can’t be expected to hold hearings on this right now…
It might ruin the narrative O! is peddling right now…
Comment by MarkD on 10/7 @ 1:21 pm #
I’m for anything Waxman is against. I’m against anything Waxman is for. He’s like Schumer, without the charm.
Comment by eaglewingz08 on 10/7 @ 1:22 pm #
Puh-leeeze Rep Waxman, you talk about ‘not politicizing’ the hearings.
When have you NOT politicized anything that came before your committee. Wasn’t it your dem committee members who held faux impeachment proceedings against President Bush? That was really non partisan, wasn’t it? Didn’t you align with that other malignancy Conyers in attacking the Bush Administration for the past eight years, politicizing both election results and undermining US foreign policy?
The only reason there are no hearings on Congressional culpability is because they can’t find a John McCain this time to try to cover up dem’s responsibility for this crime. (I must note strongly that John McCain was absolved by dem special counsel Bill Bennett, of all culpability early in the investigation of Keating Five, which should have been Keating 4, but DEMS refused to stop the investigation and to absolve McCain because it would then be an all Democrap scandal.)
Comment by Rep. Waxman on 10/7 @ 1:25 pm #
LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA !!!!!!!
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 10/7 @ 1:26 pm #
Waxman also retorted that looking back at Congress’s interaction with Fannie Mae could be dangerous territory for the GOP, since it controlled Congress for 12 years until 2007.
Translation = There is widespread neck deep in Fannie Mae shit Democrats who have a LOT to fear.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 10/7 @ 1:29 pm #
I say the Republicans should call Waxman’s bluff and demand that he hold hearings on Congress and Fannie Mae  and then hold a press conference to call him out for stonewalling every day that he doesn’t.
Yep. This the Democrat Enron wrapped in Abramoff on steroids.
Spectator Prowler quotes a previous Dem aide who says there lots of Democrats shitting bricks and sweating bullets.
Comment by JD on 10/7 @ 1:30 pm #
Yes, because Rep. Waxman is a post-partisan post-rational Democrat that would never proceed forward in an attempt to make a Republican look bad. He is simply looking out for Sen. McCain.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 10/7 @ 1:32 pm #
Wouldn’t normally the press be doing it’s own investigative journalism into Fannie and Freddie?
Can’t. They are just as corrupted and complicit in all myriad of conflicts of interests.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 10/7 @ 1:41 pm #
Scroll to 4:35 in this video - the Racist black man is the conservative wildly cheered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6tmw8TzzLA
you won’t be disappointed.
Comment by Lost My Cookies on 10/7 @ 1:52 pm #
Typically I can stomach almost anyone. I pride myself on not letting my disgust show when speaking with people who really, really bug me.
I can’t do that with Waxman. That nasty cartoon of a prick just wads my nads into a ball of ice. All I want to do is to rip the stuffing out of that muppet and break the hand that’s stuck up his ass. Seriously, the guy rubs me the wrong way. I just can’t hide it. If he’s on TV and I’m channel surfing, I’ll swear in front of my kids. In fact, I’ll swear in front of my kids just for the hell of it, because there is such a thing as a Waxman. Like J Edgar Hoover and Eleanor Roosevelt, if he was a chick, I’d go gay.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 10/7 @ 1:59 pm #
http://tinyurl.com/44xy9j
“If the Democrats always believed that the GSE’s were ineffective but supported them anyway, then the only other explanation for their constant obstruction would be corruption.“
Comment by JD on 10/7 @ 2:07 pm #
The Hill says that Waxman agreed to hearings on Fannie and Freddie. What are the odds of this happening before the election?
Comment by kelly on 10/7 @ 2:12 pm #
Slim and none, JD. Slim and none.
Pingback by A Summary of the Flimflam on 10/7 @ 3:10 pm #
[...] Also, the Dems won’t allow an investigation into Fannie & Freddie. [...]
Comment by Mikey NTH on 10/7 @ 4:18 pm #
But there are so many hearings that need to be held first! The office of presidential dog-walker needs to be investigated - there are allegations that not all of the dog poop was picked up on 17% of the strolls!
Comment by Bob Reed on 10/7 @ 5:19 pm #
Duuuuuuuuude,
This is O!s scene, he’s tubin’ duuuuuude, it’s all breakin’ his way…
Don’t be talkin’ about caused it! That’s not in The Story of O!…
Don’t be harshing his mellow, duuuuuuude…
Comment by pdbuttons on 10/8 @ 8:23 am #
I chopped down a cherry tree!
and I’m a…wittln’ a clue
from the clue tree
to beat ur ass
over and over
JIMI Hendrix once said
move over ..Karl rover
meet the new boss..same as duh old boss
question; the hypnotised never lie
DO YA
Comment by pdbuttons on 10/8 @ 8:27 am #
the ink is black
duh paper is white
3 dog nite
mullets unite!
Comment by steveaz on 10/8 @ 11:44 am #
Happyfeet,
“You would think there would be one Democrat that wanted to get out from under this corruption.”
There is. He is a Democratic Senator. His name is Teddy Kennedy. He saw all this coming down the pike, so he called in ’sick’ and bailed just in time. He got out of class and avoided the whole mess by getting a doctor’s hall-pass.
As Andrew Sullivan would say, “I question the timing!” Because of doctor’s orders, Teddy doesn’t even have vote on the ‘bail-out” plan. He’s at home in Nantucket, sipping Scotch through a curly straw, safe in his millions, and laughing heartily at us peons as we cluck and worry over our dwindling life-savings.
Gobsmackingly convenient, I say. Gobsmacking.