" Not so difficult to stomach when it's virtual ;-) "

" ...and some people here, such as the letter writer above, think it's all the fault of the Democrats. But today, on this little forum, conservatives and liberals can come together on this issue and express our mutual disgust for the "business-as-usual" mentality that pervades our government (and especially in our own New York State Legislature, but that's a discussion for another time). Group hug, anyone? "

" budobrubbie, within the article you can see that both parties were at fault. Blame Congress, the greedy mortgage companies, and the people who over bought and/or speculated. That is the bulk of the situation. Some people here think it's all because of Bush. "

" Secretly paid off to derail legislation -- it's business as usual with our lawmakers -- from both parties. "

" movedsouth - Notice I'm not denying the Democrats culpability in this financial crisis, just refuting the letter writer's contention that the Democrats are exclusively responsible for the current situation. There's plenty of blame to go around; neither party can justifiably claim their innocence here. Obviously, the Dems shouldn't have committed to putting people with lower incomes or poor credit histories into the "home of their dreams". However, some GOP lawmakers apparantly accepted bribes to foil their own colleague's (Sen. Hagel) regulation bill. Once again, the end result is that the interest of the country has not been served by either political party. "

" AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY----- " "Democrats did not like the harshest provision, which would have given a new regulator a mandate to shrink Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by forcing them to sell off part of their portfolios. That approach, the Democrats feared, would cut into the ability of low- and moderate-income families to buy houses."

The political backdrop to the debate "was like bizarre-o-world," said the second of three people familiar with the program. "The Republicans were pro-regulation and the Democrats were against it; it was upside down."Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee chairman at the time, underscored that in a statement Wednesday, saying that with Democrats already on their side, it was not surprising that Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae went after Republicans. "Unfortunately," said Shelby, R-Ala., "efforts then to derail reform were successful." "

" GREAT CALL< BUDOBRUBBIE!!!
Here's the lowdown from the article:
WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.
In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.
"Freddie Mac's payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel's bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.
Unknown to the senators, DCI was undermining support for the bill in a campaign targeting 17 Republican senators in 13 states, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The states and the senators targeted changed over time, but always stayed on the Republican side." "

" Just this morning, the Associated Press is reporting that Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm to undermine legislation that wold have regulated it and it's sister company, Fannie Mae. As a result, there was not enough GOP support to pass a bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel to regulate these financial giants. And this occurred in 2005, when the Republicans were in control of the Congress. Here's the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_bi_ge/the_influence_game_housing "