The Quiet Conservative October 1, 2008
IT WASN'T THE FREE MARKET!
Public opinion is swinging against John McCain, George Bush, and the GOP for the collapse of two
government sponsored enterprises (GSE’s) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This collapse kicked off
the run of bank failures and investment company failures. The economy is teetering. This implosion
is ongoing and no one seems to know how much it is going to end up costing the American taxpayer,
or whether the present state of prosperity for the nation will endure.
The partisan callers to radio stations are tattooing the crisis on President Bush because it happened
“on his watch.” The news cycles are running constantly about the failure of the free markets and the
lack of government intervention and oversight. The media is bent on portraying Senator Obama as
spotless in the crisis and a big part of leading the solution. The very same press is smearing Senator
McCain’s reputation because he returned to Washington to do the job he was elected to do. The
press is going all out to point fingers at the GOP and their inept handling of the economy. However,
it isn't just wrong, it's a bald faced and poorly told lie. The problem wasn't the free market at all. It
was the government's intervention in the market to promote progressive social policies that brought
us here.
The famous quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing.” is attributed to Edmund Burke. That culpability might have been the case for McCain,
Bush, the GOP, and federal regulators except they tried to do something and were stopped cold.
The Internet is a wonderful thing. It didn't take long to figure out who the villains were in the
crisis. They were the ones with oversight over Freddie and Fannie and they were the ones to run the
companies and control the regulation. They were the ones to set the whole thing rolling. They were
the ones to get the campaign contributions. All were Democrats.
Partisan you say? Not fair? Sorry, facts are stubborn things. Chris Dodd was head of the Senate
banking committee and a ’friend of Angelo’ getting a sweet deal from Countrywide mortgage. Barney
Frank’s onetime man ’spouse’ was an executive at Fannie and Frank oversaw the GSE regulation
from the House side. It was he who insisted there was nothing wrong at Fannie and Freddie and
made sure the loans kept on going. Franklin Raines, former CEO and now adviser to Obama got
over 90 million in his years there. Jamie Gorelick of 9/11 infamy scored over 20 million. The two
GSE's were ripe for looting.
It wasn't about corruption. Sure, that was fun, but that was just a perk. No, it was about pushing
the progressive agenda and buying votes. If there is one thing the Democrats are solid about after
their love of abortion, it is the redistribution of wealth.
It began with the Community Reivnestment Act or CRA. This was signed into law by President
Carter but under Clinton it took on teeth. His cronies rewrote the rules when he got in the Oval
Office. Community Organizers then used the act to strong arm banks into paying off and making
risky loans. The liberals in Congress threatened to shut down banks who didn't provide proof of
sufficient ’progressive’ lending to people who otherwise wouldn't qualify for a loan. It was liberals
who kicked off the sub prime loan mess to push their activist social polices.
It was liberals who also made sure the whole ball kept rolling. McCain, Bush and other
Republicans tried to bring new regulations to stop the toxic loans, but Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and
the Democratic leadership stopped any reform cold, and they have been stonewalling for years.
By 2005 the Chair of the Senate banking committee, Richard Shelby, tried to get new regulations
passed with all the Republicans voting for the regulation and all the Democrats voting against,
including Chris Dodd! Too much money was coming in and the handing out of homes was the
redistribution of wealth. By 2006 Congress flipped to the Democratic control and the committees
overseeing the GSE's were now headed by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.
You would think people would begin to notice, now that the bill has come due, who was running up
the tab. As President Clinton just admitted to ABC News, Democrats were "resisting any efforts
by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and
tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" It would seem the former president is trying
to distance himself and Hillary from the fallout. So far he need not have bothered. The very same
press who are in a lather to find out if Governor Palin tried to ban books as a mayor are completely
incurious as to who caused 700 billion dollars to go "poof". Odd considering the information is so
easy to find by way of Google and You Tube.
Now people are under the misunderstanding that it is a simple matter of numbers in Congress as to
who controls what goes on. It isn't. It is about who controls the committees and what legislation
they allow to get to the floor. If they want to kill legislation they keep it bottled up in committee.
With Chris Dodd and Barney Frank chairing the committees, that is exactly what happened with
reform legislation. You, the taxpayer, are about to pay 700 billion dollars+ for what the
Democratic leadership in Congress caused. It wasn't the markets at all. If the Feds hadn't been
threatening the banks or playing roulette with Fannie and Freddie, these loans wouldn't have occurred
at all.
Keep that in mind when you listen to the press conferences featuring Barney Frank, Chris Dodd
Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. Keep that in mind when you think of Chris Dodd as the number one
recipient of campaign contributions from Fanny followed closely by freshman Senator Obama- who
by the way is the very same Senator now running for president with a resume as a community
organizer. A presidential candidate who got almost as much from Fannie in a couple of years as
Dodd did in decades. The very same Senator Obama who has surrounded himself with former
CEO's from Fanny, (CEO's who looted the company and cooked the books for personal gain.) The
very same senator who has hit up the taxpayers for 932 million dollars worth of earmarks during
his short time at the senate.
Now, after the November election if this senator becomes president and the liberals increase their
margin in Congress, who will run the investigations as to how this collapse happened? The very
same people who caused it of course!
Post Script:
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." We have been trying to find funding to launch The Quiet
Conservative since the 2006 elections here in Kansas. We could see the corruption in the attorney
general’s race but couldn't pursue it. We could see the press acting as a partisan tool of liberals and
not as the impartial and honorable guardian of the public. So we began to contact wealthy
conservatives to assist us. We still are. And we are unsuccessful. As long as we remain unsuccessful
the people will remain uninformed or misinformed. These powerful conservatives are the very same
people now faced with the very real prospect of increases in the liberal powers in Congress. These
very same people potentially face the most liberal and radical president in history. These very same
people now face the prospect of a federal judiciary including a Supreme Court being packed with
progressive activists.
The rest of us face that too. But most of us don‘t have the power to stop it. If we do face this
outcome in little over a month, shouldn't there be a voice of opposition? Talk radio might be
muzzled. The Internet might be muzzled. But the press is still specifically mentioned in the
Constitution and the press is still seen as an ally of progressive Marxism. Shouldn't there be a voice
for accurate political news and commentary from a traditional American standpoint? Shouldn't there
be a voice reaching the people in their hometown paper telling them the truth?
Who will look back and say they could have done something to stop the decline of our society and
didn't? Who will stand up for lower taxes, smaller government, the right to life, individual freedom,
religious freedom, a strong America? Who will say it didn't concern them? Not anyone here. The
Quiet Conservative does not have the means to stop the onslaught. But we will keep trying.