Kevin Drum makes the point that when it comes to asleep-at-the-switch on financial regulation, there's blame enough to go 'round at both parties (link). I'll drink to that: Democrats have a lot to be ashamed of here. Kevin mentions Charles Schumer, the target of a New York Times searchlight this morning, but there are plenty more. He could surely have mentioned (ex) Senator Tom (Mr. Credit Card) Daschle , (ex) Senator Joe Biden from MBNA, or Senator (if he is a Democrat?) Joe Lieberman, the enabler of sloppy accounting. Or, of course, Barney Frank, Mr.FNMA/GNMA.
With people like Daschle and Biden, I suppose you have the old familiar problem: small state, big interest. With Barney Frank, I think the problem is a bit different. I have to admit a lot of ambivalence here. On the one hand, Frank is probably the smartest and funniest man in Congress sinice the departure of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Alan Simpson, and may well be better briefed than anyone at all. On the other hand, he believes a lot of extremely dopey things. I don't think he is in the pocket of FNMA/GNMA in quite the way the Wall Street Journal would have us believe (though I have to keep reminding myself: just because the Journal believes it doesn't mean it's wrong). I do think he is starry-eyed out over the cause of expanded home ownership, and lets himself be blinded by all kinds of abuses in consequence. I'm glad he has a seat at the tables of power, and I love it when he skewers and eviscerates the idiocies of his opponents. I just wish there were somebody around to sit on his head once in a while. Trouble is, you'd have to be smarter than Barney Frank to do it, and the list of candidates for that slot is not long.
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