Wednesday Chronicle: Barney Frank Is Headed for the Exit

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Subscribe to The Patriot Post — It's Right and It's FREE: click here. Chronicle · November 30, 2011 The Foundation "The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton Editorial Exegesis Barney Frank is headed for the exit "It is a newspaper truism that what is good for journalism is bad for the country, and vice versa. Let's just say that regarding the pending retirement of Congressman Barney Frank, we're delighted to make the professional sacrifice. Few House Members have made a bigger legislative mark, and arguably no one so expensively. Mr. Frank deserves to be forever remembered -- and we'll help everyone remember him -- as the nation's leading protector of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their fall. For years Barney helped block meaningful reform of the mortgage giants while pushing an 'affordable housing' agenda that helped to enlarge the subprime mortgage industry. 'I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision],' Mr. Frank said on September 25, 2003, in one of his many legendary rhetorical hits. 'I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing.' The dice came up snake-eyes for the housing market and U.S. economy. Democracy can be unfair, and for his sins Mr. Frank was rewarded with the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee in 2009 and an opening to remake the U.S. financial industry. It was like asking Charlie Sheen to teach an anger management class. The result was Dodd-Frank, which didn't solve the 'too big to fail' problem but did make banks even more subject to the wishes of Washington. The crony capitalism exemplified by Fannie and Freddie became more broadly embedded in U.S. financial markets. ... Liberals who regret Mr. Frank's departure needn't worry too much. The next Democrat in line to run Financial Services is California's Maxine Waters, whose main contribution to Dodd-Frank was requiring racial-preference officers at each of the regional Federal Reserve banks. Journalists may not miss Mr. Frank after all." --The Wall Street Journal How will you remember Barney Frank's legacy in the House? Upright "If you thought Rep. Barney Frank was bad, his likely replacement is worse. Rep. Maxine Waters is Congress' most anti-bank member -- unless she owns stock in one, that is. ... When in 2003, the publicly created mortgage giants [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] became dangerously overleveraged with weak mortgages, Waters pushed them to underwrite even 'more products where you have no down payments.' She accused critics of the quotas of discriminating against minorities and the poor. ... She lobbied to exclude them and their government-mandated affordable housing charter from the 'sweeping financial reforms.' And she got her wish. She also got another wish: a provision exempting minority-owned banks from the new oversight. Quite interesting. Because at the same time she got that little gem added to the bill, she was under investigation for steering federal bailout money to a troubled minority-owned bank in which she and her husband held a large financial stake." --Investor's Business Daily "Under a new 893-page proposal unveiled last week, automakers must hit a fleet-wide fuel economy average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 -- double today's 27.3 standard. The government says it would cost automakers $8.5 billion per year to comply, which means a spike in sticker prices of at least $2,000 to $2,800, according to official projections. ... The Obama Administration is pointing to the supposed benefits of the new standards -- including a fuel savings of $1.7 trillion -- but as [Heritage Foundation's Diane] Katz writes, that number is 'pure speculation given that actual savings would depend on the price of gasoline,' which can't be predicted 14 years into the future, much less next summer. ... The EPA should not be in the business of picking and choosing what kind of cars and trucks Americans can drive, and neither should President Obama." --Heritage Foundation's Mike Brownfield "Last week, 5,000 files of private email correspondence among several of the world's top climate scientists were anonymously leaked onto the Internet. Like the first 'climategate' leak of 2009, the latest release shows top scientists in the field fudging data, conspiring to bully and silence opponents, and displaying far less certainty about the reliability of anthropogenic global warming theory in private than they ever admit in public. The scientists include men like Michael Mann of Penn State University and Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, both of whose reports inform what President Obama has called 'the gold standard' of international climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." --columnist James Delingpole The Demo-gogues Sometimes they get it right: "This country has never had a congressman like Barney Frank, and the House of Representatives will not be the same without him." --Barack Obama Blather: "Barney is a fighter for fairness in financial services and civil rights for all, including minorities and LGBT Americans. Because of his leadership, the Financial Services Committee has been one of the most productive committees in Congress. ... I hope to use my experience to continue and expand his work in the committee. I will continue to champion practical regulations, while making sure they work for consumers and the financial sector, a sector which has the right to be profitable but the obligation to be fair, two concepts which are not mutually exclusive." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Excuses: "If I were to run again, I would be engaged full-fledged in a campaign, which is entirely appropriate. Nobody ought to expect to get elected without a contest. But the fact that [the district] is so new makes it harder in terms of learning about new areas, introducing myself to new people. And I have other obligations; one is to continue to serve the people I currently serve." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who is avoiding mentioning the writing on the wall for Democrats in 2012 High-minded socialist: "Over the last decade, we became a country that relied too much on what we bought and consumed." --Barack Obama Irony: "[N]o matter how tough things are right now, we still give thanks for that most American of blessings, the chance to determine our own destiny. The problems we face didn't develop overnight, and we won't solve them overnight." --Barack Obama, the man who wants to take away the chance for each American to determine his own destiny Insight "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." --Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) "Leadership is a gift. It's given by those who follow. You have to be worthy of it." --Gen. Mark Welsh, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe Dezinformatsia Speaking truth to power: "[I]'m not going to get caught up in ... what a hypocrite [Barack Obama] is. It doesn't matter. ... Because that will all come out in the wash. So, what's great is that the Republicans clearly don't want to win and that's good for Obama." --MSNBC's Mike Brzezinski on Newt Gingrich's ascendency Projection: "The Republicans have a problem. They are consumed by hate, so consumed they can't think positively of whom they may want to lead them." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews And that's a bad thing? "If you take all the taxes paid in the United States and you compared them against other countries, the U.S. overall taxes are the lowest as a percentage of the economy among developing countries. About one out of every four dollars in the whole economy is paid in taxes. That's lower than any other country in the developed world. In Denmark it's as high as about 50 percent." --CQ Roll Call's David Hawkings The BIG Lie: "But the notion that tax cuts or tax increases somehow impact economic growth, we know historically that's simply not the case. ... Isn't that one of the falsehoods that's peddled in Washington?" --NBC's David Gregory More taxes: "Why should 1990s taxes be considered the outer limit of revenue collection? Think about it: The long-run budget outlook has darkened, which means that some hard choices must be made. Why should those choices only involve spending cuts? Why not also push some taxes above their levels in the 1990s?" --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman Newspulper Headlines: Are Any of Them Fruits?: "Rep. Frank: Some Members of Congress Are 'Vegetables'" --TheHill.com That's Mr. Barney Frank: "The Real Reason to Miss Barney Frank" --TheAtlantic.com No, but That Budget Does Make You Look Fat: "Democrats on the Latest GOP Debt Offer: 'Do We Look Stupid?'" --TheHill.com We Blame George W. Bush: "Today's Polarized Politics ... Blame FDR and the Political Scientists" --David Shribman syndicated column Client No. 99%: "Eliot Spitzer and Occupy Wall Street Find Each Other" --Politico.com Questions Nobody Is Asking: "Are We Getting Nicer?" --The New York Times Bottom Story of the Day: "Obama Raffles Off Another Dinner With Donors" --USA Today website (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto) Help Us Help You The Patriot Post's Chronicle is a one-of-a-kind collection of both the week's best conservative analysis of hot-button issues as well as the most outrageous comments made by assorted leftists in politics, media and culture. Our team works tirelessly to consolidate all this content into a quick-reading information buffet that you won't find anywhere else. We depend on your support to keep this priceless resource coming to your inbox every Wednesday. Before year's end, we still must raise $187,200. Help us by making a secure online donation to our 2011 Year-End Campaign. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form. Thank you! Nate Jackson Managing Editor Village Idiots Paying people to not work = jobs: "[U]nemployment insurance has been recognized by outside economists and by members of both parties as vital assistance to an economy to help it grow and create jobs. It is a direct injection, if you will, into the bloodstream of the economy. And so we very much support extension of unemployment insurance. If we do not do that, approximately six million Americans will lose their benefits over the course of next year. And that will obviously have very negative impact on their lives, but a negative impact on the economy." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Class warfare from a rich guy: "Occupy Wall Street people understand that not only are more difficult times possibly around the corner, they know that the current government will likely do as it has historically done, which is to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of the long term interests of the middle class. Some of the most financially successful people in America continually remind us all that capitalism is a contest. There are winners and losers. And the winners want to enjoy their success and they want the losers to keep it down." --wealthy actor Alec Baldwin Peaceful protests? "Poor children need more than just a $1,000 for their family, they need a war against poverty to make it a major priority in the way which we have a priority for Afghanistan, and a priority to bail out banks, and a priority to defend corporate interests when it comes to environmental issues. ... [The push for more entitlements] is going to be fought in the streets. ... That's why the Occupy movement is so important because some of this is going to be fought in the streets." --Princeton professor Cornel West Who asked him? "Compromise is how this country was founded, and unless two people in disagreement with each other don't find a way to reach out to one another and make compromises, you don't get a consensus that allows you to move forward. But the Tea Party point of view of no compromise whatsoever is not a point of view that will eventually produce a presidential candidate who will win." --former Defense Secretary Colin Powell Short Cuts "It's the Democrats whose position is that the only problem in Washington, D.C., is the peasants aren't sending enough cash in for the king to spend." --Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform "If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending, they'd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal. But the media are trying to turn it around and say that it's Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts." --columnist Ann Coulter "The Occupy movement, as many Democratic strategists view it, possibly out of desperation, with no other issue available to them, signals mainstream America's disgust with big money and its desire for a cut of same. That would contradict the basic American understanding -- leave aside tantalizingly worded poll questions -- that taking other people's money solves nothing in the long run. ... 'Equality' -- find it if you can. There's no such beast." --columnist William Murchison "Congressman Barney Frank accused some members of Congress of being vegetables. Is this wise? If Barney Frank accuses some members of Congress of being vegetables he opens himself up to the deduction that some members of Congress are fruits." --comedian Argus Hamilton "Over the weekend, President Obama took his daughters to a bookstore. Barack bought Malia 'The Phantom Tollbooth,' while Malia bought Barack 'Economics for Dummies.'" --comedian Jimmy Fallon Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team (To submit reader comments click here.) Patriot News Review Former Treasury Sec. Gave Hedge Funds Insider Info. 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