Posted on 11/29/2011 5:49:20 AM PST by Kaslin
When Barney Frank (D-Fannie Mae) announces that he’s not going to run for reelection, you can bet that the Democrats have between zero chances and zilch of winning back the lower chamber. Or at least you hope they do, because the stakes are greater than merely partisan politics.
While Politico reports that Democrats aren’t yet writing off winning back the US House of Representatives, Townhall Finance will tell you that it’s a near certainty that the GOP will pick up seats in 2012; thankfully and gratefully.
And that’s a good thing for both Republicans and Democrats, because next in line for Frank’s chairmanship of the House Banking Committee, presuming the Democrats could win back the House, would be This Old Socialist, Maxine Waters (D-Bat Stuff Crazy), according to the Washington Post.
While the generic ballot has tilted in the last few weeks a little more toward the left, the trend is all GOP since 2008.
Until a Democrat wins a race that a Democrat is supposed to lose, nothing has changed. All you need to know is that the Democrats lost NY-9, a congressional district Obama won by 11 points and Kerry won by 12 points.
So relax: Maxine is probably not going to be running the banking system any time soon.
You know, unless the GOP screws up.
Remember I said “probably.”
Still, you might want to take up prayer too.
But for Barney Frank what’s at stake isn’t just ending his political career with whatever dignity he has left- which isn’t a lot. Instead, he’s looking at the destruction of the capstone of his career, the so-called Dodd-Frank banking reforms.
Number one on the Republican hit list of legislative repeals might be Obamacare, but Dodd-Frank is a close second.
“With Republicans set on repealing Dodd-Frank,” reports the Post “whose biggest components are still being put into effect, Democrats will be forced to fill the void to keep the legislation intact after the Massachusetts Representative retires in 2012.”
Already the Dodd portion of Dodd-Frank was put out to pasture.
Senator Chris Dodd was a victim of an electorate who was tired of inside dealing by Congress and legislation written by special interests. Rather than face an angry and disgruntled electorate, Dodd chose not to run for reelection.
Dodd, while chairman of the Senate banking committee, received a VIP mortgage from one of the worst abusers of sub prime mortgages, Countrywide.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal:
Former Countrywide Financial loan officer Robert Feinberg says Mr. Dodd knowingly saved thousands of dollars on his refinancing of two properties in 2003 as part of a special program the California mortgage company had for the influential. He also says he has internal company documents that prove Mr. Dodd knew he was getting preferential treatment as a friend of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's then-CEO.
That a "Friends of Angelo" program existed is not in dispute. It was crucial to the boom that Countrywide enjoyed before its fortunes turned. While most of the company was aggressively lending to risky borrowers and off-loading those mortgages in bulk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mr. Feinberg's department was charged with making sure those who could influence Fannie and Freddie's appetite for risk were sufficiently buttered up. As a Banking Committee bigshot, Mr. Dodd was perfectly placed to be buttered.
Frank too was complicit in inside dealing at Ground Zero of the sub prime terror attack on our economy.
“Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives,” reported Fox News in 2008. “Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.”
Still the prospect of Maxine Waters, who makes the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s Most Corrupt list, as the chief banking legislator for the nation makes the stakes for all of us in 2012 a little clearer.
There is probably no other member of Congress who could make conservatives wish for the balmy days of Barney Frank quite like Waters could. She’s already under investigation for intervening on behalf of a bank looking for a bailout.
In politics, that’s what you call a chairman who is prequalified for the chairmanship.
Conservatives: This is your election to lose.
Start your engines.
And she’ll NEVER step down, regardless of how bad her ethics problems become.
Remember, Maxine, “It’s not the nature of the evidence, Its the seriousness of the charge” that matters.
and if that thought does not scare the public away from the thought of ever giving the Democrats a majority again, I don’t know what will.
Bring back Ron Dellums.
Geez. They have the goods on these people. Throw them in jail.
This would be the BEST reason to vote for whichever Republican ends up running against Obama, no matter WHO it is! We cannot let the Democrats retain the Presidency, and we need to retain control over the House of Representatives, as well. It would be disastrous to allow the Dems to have the majority in Congress, again, with folks like Maxine Waters in line for Chairmanships!
I am sure Barney gave Mad Maxine the heads up before he left, and Maxine quickly realized her time has REALLY come to fall under the political spotlight and be potentially pegged as another corrupt Democrat or politician. Congress approval rating subterranean. But personally, the rehashing of her husband's role as member of the OneUnited Bankbank's board of directors and owning mol $350,000 in bank stock.And, of course, their Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac involvement etc.
She also would be in the Minority IF she gets the post and I doubt that she will because of her soon to be regurgitated "ethics history". Remember Pelosi is just in the Minority-House. Maybe Mad Maxine stood a chance in 2010, but as they say "time is of the essence" and changes got slimmer as time passed on and the political environment tested: UGLY.
Frank quits[cause it's too hard to get TO KNOW new people in his redistricting] and Gonzalez (D-Texas) haS announced he won't seek reelection come '12. 17 Dems won't be seeking a new term. 8 of those 17 Democrats are seeking other offices. Nine Democrats quitting outright. How many more to follow is the question.
Cain's ongoing battle which is typical Chicago politics[Obama vs. Jack Ryan and actress ex-wife who refused to play family smear politics] helps smoke screen the trials and tribulations the Left is having. Meanwhile, Obama just stays "gone..gone..gone" or "on tour" like a Tiger Woods.
The gift that keeps on giving.
I am not doubting you about the corruptness of Maxine; however, you missed my point. She is also not very mentally resourceful, so she would likely not cover her tracks like BFer did.
Don’t you have to have a mentally
to be mentally resourceful?
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