The Dog That Didn't Bark

In Mark's last post, he makes an excellent point that deserves amplification: if there was any conceivable way to tie the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle to the GOP, the compliant MSM would have done so. That they haven't speaks volumes, but it's a classic case of the dog that didn't bark: if you aren't paying close attention, you would miss the silent clue as to where the blame lies. In this, it is analogous to the popular internet game of "Guess the Party", where party identification in a story that makes a politician look bad is not stated (or buried toward the end of the story) if that pol is a Democrat. If it's a Republican, it's more than likely in the headline, and never farther away than the first or second line.

As I have been educating myself about this catastrophe, it is pretty clear that the fault lies in a succession of good intentions awry: starting with making the dream of home ownership more readily available (even to the non-creditworthy), then doing things to make it look as if there is no discrimination (the bad kind, not the good kind) in lending practices, and then, having erected an edifice to make this happen with the government as its sponser (FM/FM), buy off the solons who are supposed to be regulating it (#1 - Dodd, #2 - Obama). Then when the feces hits the fan, talk generically about how Republicans don't believe in regulation and that's the root of the problem.

Except the record shows things to be far different from how the Dodds and Franks of the world would like to paint the picture:



PS: Senator Dodd's father was censured for using political money for personal use. Like father, like son. If he had any shame (he doesn't), he would resign, not pretend to be a leader in "fixing" the mess he created.