Henry Waxman Ignores the Obvious

This release was issued last week from Dem Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

The Oversight Committee will hold five hearings in October on the causes and impacts of the financial crisis on Wall Street. In addition to two hearings next week on the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG, the Committee will hold hearings on the regulation of hedge funds with fund managers who earned over $1 billion (October 16); on the breakdown in credit ratings with the CEOs of the major rating agencies (October 22); and on the role of federal regulators with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Treasury Secretary John Snow, and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox (October 23).

What's missing from this picture? Ever heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Where are the oversight hearings on the "Toxic Twins"? Neither AIG nor Lehman Bros. would have tanked without the problems created by Freddie and Fannie. The entire bailout scheme (we're told) was necessary because of the credit crunch created by the bad loans packaged and sold by Freddie and Fannie.

Waxman clearly doesn't want to tackle the big two because of the clear and obvious culpability of Democrats in creating the environment that led to the collapse of these institutions. Meanwhile, he chases irrelevant issues such as CEO pay and holds these House political show trials.

It's almost as though he's stuck his enormous nostrils into a natural disaster, and instead of investigating the tornado that tore up the trailer park, he's interrogating the trailer manufacturers and accusing them of shoddy workmanship and charging that it was their faulty construction that caused them to fall apart.

GOP Rep. Chris Shays has finally gotten Waxman to agree to a hearing on Freddie and Fannie, but don't look for it before election day. If the truth hurts Dems, Waxman isn't interested in hearing it.