Thread: Barney Frank Had Interest Outside Of His Elected Position!

Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest
Friday , October 03, 2008

By Bill Sammon


WASHINGTON —

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.



So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

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. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

A top GOP House aide agreed.

"C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws."

Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in 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," Clinton said recently.

Bill Sammon is FOX News' Washington Deputy Managing Editor.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly ... 01,00.html

He and the rest of congress should be in jail.

Well isnt that cozy. Everyone that was involved in this SCAM either were or will be in bed with one another in more ways than one.

I loved seening O'Reilly scream at the elitist Frank! He takes NO BLAME!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWQ4CWKtZU&NR=1

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

His boyfriend now makes and sells pottery........ LOL

Barney Frank, what a sanctimonious piece of ***t. And he has the gall to blame the Republicans. And the Republicans, what a bunch of wimps that dont have the balls to tell Barney Frank and America the truth that it was him that was a major cause of this.

Originally Posted by wmarincic

Barney Frank, what a sanctimonious pice of V****V. And he has the gall to blame the Republicans. And the Republicans, what a bunch of wimps that dont have the balls to tell Barney Frank and America the truth that it was him that was a major cause of this.

WE MUST STAND AND WE MUST TAKE ACTION AND WE MUST NOT CONDONE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO US BY INACTION!

I'm thinking they all had interests outside their job - From the President on down.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I'm thinking they all had interests outside their job - From the President on down.

Absolutely and none of it was for the good of the people!!!

This entire "bail out scam" should be investigated further and there should be class action law suits brought against the "industries" that pushed this and the politicians who supported it. This is nothing more than bribery and racketeering at its core!!!!!

These loan sharks got themselves and the people they screwed into a jam and the American people should NEVER have been brought into this criminal act to bail out these mafiosos.

Illegal aliens always seem to be able to "stop the will of the people" in courts after we have voted to enforce immigration laws, so that these "laws" can be further examined to see if they are CONSTITUTIONAL. I believe a judge needs to put this "bail out bill" in limbo to be further studied to see if what has been done to the American people is CONSTITUTIONAL!

It won't be investigated unless we get a new congress. These people won't investigate themselves or the people or corporations who pay them.

Barney Frank, what a sanctimonious piece of ***t. And he has the gall to blame the Republicans. And the Republicans, what a bunch of wimps that dont have the balls to tell Barney Frank and America the truth that it was him that was a major cause of this.

The Republicans weren't wimps, they were participants just like the other side of THE party was.
If we don't learn that lesson, we are lost.

The scary thing is, this is election time - next month even - and they are willing to risk the anger of 80% of the people of this country - and tack on pages of pork at that. IT looks like they either know something we don't - like votes don't matter - maybe there won't be any votes - or ????.

The tacking on of all that pork looks like they told everybody, 'We're going to vote this through now, everybody sit down and find all that pork you need to get in and let's do it now.' Why?