Bawney Fwank Admits a Confwict of Intwist

Bawney's baby and the job he got him at Fannie Mae:

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank admitted he helped his ex-lover land a lucrative post with Fannie Mae in the early 1990s while the Newton Democrat was on a committee that regulated the lending giant — but he called questions of a potential ethical conflict “nonsense.”

“If it is (a conflict of interest), then much of Washington is involved (in conflicts),” Frank told the Herald last night. “It is a common thing in Washington for members of Congress to have spouses work for the federal government. There is no rule against it at all.”

If you're looking to see who's responsible for the current economic crisis you need look no further than Bawney Fwank and Chris Dodd, both of whom did their best to protect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from regulatory oversight as the two mortgage giants failed. They also helped to ensure that people who could not afford to buy homes were able to buy them with little or nothing down and thus precipitated the home mortgage collapse when all those people began defaulting.

BREAKING: Hollywood Collapse Now Inevitible

How else can you read this?

"FROM NBC WIRES: Chris Dodd accepts job to become head of Motion Picture Association of America"

Maybe he can do for the MPAA what he did for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Once again incompetence is rewarded.

Dem Senate Candidate Lied About Vietnam Service

Well, this might put a damper on his Senate election plans:

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.

In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.

Hey, it's dangerous working with all those toys. You might get an ow-ee.

Lucky for Blumenthal that he's from the state which has repeatedly elected Chris Dodd, so the likelihood is he'll survive this.  The voters of Connecticut are not very discriminating.

Apparently Blumenthal is planning a damage control press conference "flanked by veterans" on Tuesday.  Classic case of being in a hole and still digging.  Others are also predicting that there will be many and frequent uses of the term "swiftboating", even though it doesn't apply in this case.  This will backfire...big time.

UPDATE from Hot Air:

Update: It gets worse for Blumenthal. Meet his likely Republican challenger, Rob Simmons:

Rob’s public service career began when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1965 as a Private, and spent 19 months in Vietnam where he earned two Bronze Star Medals. Rob continued his military service in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer, retiring as a Colonel in 2003 with over 37 years of active and reserve service.

RINO To the Rescue

Sadly, the Senate Dems can always find one "Republican" foolish enough to believe their rhetoric:

A Senate Republican has called for the "strongest" derivatives rules, signaling that Democrats may get the votes needed to start debating their sweeping financial regulation bill on Monday.

Just days before the Senate was due to vote to start working on Democrats' legislation, Senator Olympia Snowe said that strong derivatives regulation goes to the heart of an effective financial reform bill.

"If we are to effectively regulate the derivatives market, we must start the Senate floor debate with the strongest proposal we can craft and defend against the inevitable attempts to weaken it," Snowe told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a letter dated on Friday.

Democrats need to convince at least one of the 41 Republican senators to vote with them in order to start debating a bill to impose new rules for the financial system.

Snowe and other moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins are under pressure from the White House to support Democrats' efforts to overhaul the financial system.

Although Republicans had vowed on Friday to oppose Democrats' efforts until the sides were able to reach a bipartisan agreement, public anger over Wall Street's taxpayer bailout and Goldman Sachs' alleged fraud may force Republicans' hand.

Experts who have looked at the charges against Goldman say it's pretty much all smoke and mirrors and looks very much like a political prosecution designed to stir up anger against Wall Street and sway dummies like Snowe. It's working.

And what public anger is there against Wall Street, except that being manufactured by Obama and his cronies in the press? Most Americans don't care, but that's not how it's reported.

Chris Dodd wrote this bill which means it's a complete mess and Republicans need to stay away from it. Let's not forget it was Dodd and other Democrats that created the whole mortgage mess in the first place.

Is Congress Done for the Year?

The Speaker's Lobby at Fox News seems to think so:

So now what?


Congress finally passed health care reform in late March before finally abandoning Washington for two weeks. Lawmakers return this week. And no one quite knows what they’re going to do between now and the end of the year.


“I’m not really sure,” responded one senior staffer when I asked what was on tap when Congress returned to session.


“Are you kidding me?” said another. “I still haven’t recovered from health care.”


“I’m golfing,” replied another.


It may be April. But in Congress, the calendar may as well read December. Because almost anything of consequence for the 111th Congress is in the books.


Senators are still smarting from the bruising health care fight. So it’s doubtful that the Senate has the energy, let alone the votes, to tackle the controversial climate bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) muscled through her chamber nearly a year ago. However, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) plans to push through a big financial regulatory bill. The Obama Administration deems Dodd’s legislation as its next big ticket item.


That’s about it for legislation.


The one big challenge is the confirmation process for the next Supreme Court justice. John Paul Stevens announced his retirement late last week. Stevens departure gives President Obama his second appointment opportunity to the High Court in as many years. For instance, President Carter never even got the chance to make a mark on the Supreme Court.

Thank God for that.

The best thing Congress could do for America, and the Democrats could do for themselves, is to take the rest of the year off. The last thing we need is another big battle over controversial legislation, whether it be cap-and-tax, illegal immigration, or VAT taxes to support Obamacare.

For Pete's sake, leave us alone!

There's more at the link.

Political Video of the Day

From 2005 as Democrats assailed the GOP for threatening to do away with the filibuster in the Senate:The Democrats will hear these statements again as they try and pass Obamacare on a series of reconciliation votes in the Senate.

GOP On the Offensive in Connecticut

It's pretty much conventional wisdom that Chris Dodd is stepping down in Connecticut both because he can't win and because the Dems want him out of the way to clear the path for a stronger candidate. The candidate in question is Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who could help the Dems hold that seat.

The GOP is not waiting around on this one:

National Republicans wasted little time Wednesday in building an opposition research file against Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who will announce later in the day he will run for the Senate this year, CNN has learned.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent a request this morning to Blumenthal's office asking for copies of information ranging from "budget requests" and "state credit cards issued to Attorney General Blumenthal or provided for his use" to statistics on "plea bargain rates, felony conviction rates, and all other data associated with cases handled by the Office of the Attorney General for each year beginning in 1991 through present."

Blumenthal, a Democrat first elected as attorney general in 1990, will run for retiring Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd's seat. Former Rep. Rob Simmons and businesswoman Linda McMahon are seeking the GOP Senate nomination.

The NRSC asked for the information about Blumenthal under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

My guess is he'll run because everyone's telling him he's got it if he wants it, but I'm not sure anything is guaranteed for Democrats this year. If he opts out that would be almost as big an announcement as Dodd's.

UPDATE: Blumenthal will run. Just to see what might be coming, check out this video of Glenn Beck destroying Blumenthal.

Will the Last Democrat Senator to Leave Washington Please Turn Out the Lights?

Earlier today Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced that he will retire in 2010, and now Chris Dodd (D-CT) will announce his retirement tomorrow. Dodd was considered to be the candidate most in danger of losing, so I'm guess that he didn't want to lose and the Democrats wanted to field a stronger candidate.

Either way, good news for GOP.

Oh, and as a bonus, Democrat Bill Ritter, governor of Colorado, also announced that he won't run for re-election next year. Suddenly it's not very fashionable to be a Democrat.

Political Quote of the Day

From Sen. Harry Reid and from a citizen addressing Sen. Chris Dodd, courtesy of Don Surber:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said the public would cheer Democrats when they got home, so beloved is Obamacare. When Democrats go home, Reid said, “Yes, we’ll hear an earful, but it will be an earful of wonderment and happiness.”

Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd arrived in Connecticut, and got this “earful of wonderment and happiness”:

A man cried out, “You’re not gonna get re-elected.”

Is it just me, or does “an earful of wonderment and happiness” sound like part of a saying of Chairman Mao?

Bring on the wonderment and happiness.

Chris Dodd vs. Cliff Clavin?

Could happen. This excerpt from a story about Tim Pawlenty's political event in Minneapolis Wednesday:

Actor John Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on "Cheers," flew in to attend because he supports the "Judeo-Christian work ethic that built this country" and wants to support Pawlenty's efforts.

Ratzenberger, who is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2012 in Connecticut, said he would support Pawlenty if he ran for president.

The next day Ratzenberger spoke at the House Call event in Washington.

Connecticut could do a lot worse...and has done a lot worse...than Ratzenberger.

Here's an Important Opportunity for Key Democrats

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Steny Hoyer, Barack Obama and his whole incompetent team...here's a job opportunity for you:

Volunteers wanted for simulated 520-day Mars mission...

They'd be perfect.

Seven Democrat Senate Seats in Trouble

Newsweek has the list, but here's the short version:

Arkansas - Blanche Lincoln
California - Barbara Boxer (from Newsweek to God's ears, please!)
Colorado - Michael Bennet
Connecticut - Chris Dodd
Illinois - Open seat
Nevada - Harry Reid
Pennsylvania - Arlen Specter

My guess at this point - Dodd, Reid and Specter are gone. No hope for any of those three.

The rest are still speculation, but I think there's a shot for the GOP at all of them, including California. Boxer is such an embarrassment that in what could be a wave election the voters of California may be sick enough of her and Democrats to get rid of her.

Democrats Considering Political Suicide

Democrats are so hell-bent on passing Obamacare that they're considering a plan that could easily end up in the suicide of their party:

The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes.

The idea is the latest effort by Democrats to escape the morass caused by delays in Congress, as well as voter discontent crystallized in angry town-hall meetings. Polls suggest the overhaul plans are losing public support, giving Republicans less incentive to go along.

Democrats hope a split-the-bill plan would speed up a vote and help President Barack Obama meet his goal of getting a final measure by year's end.

Senators on the Finance Committee are pushing ahead with talks on a bipartisan bill. Democratic leaders say they hope those talks succeed but increasingly are preparing for the possibility that they do not.

Most legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, but certain budget-related measures can pass with 51 votes through a parliamentary maneuver called reconciliation.

In recent days, Democratic leaders have concluded they can pack more of their health overhaul plans under this procedure, congressional aides said. They might even be able to include a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers, a key demand of the party's liberal wing, but that remains uncertain.

Other parts of the Democratic plan would be put to a separate vote in the Senate, including most of the insurance regulations that have been central to Mr. Obama's health-care message.

That bill would likely set new rules for insurers, such as requiring they accept anyone, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. This portion of the health-care overhaul has already drawn some Republican support and wouldn't involve new spending, leading Democratic leaders to believe they could clear the 60-vote hurdle.

If the Democrats pull this end-run around the rules and structures of the Senate in order to pass this legislation, after the 2010 elections the entire Democrat caucus will be able to meet in a broom closet because the voter revolt that will follow this move will be devastating. Blue dogs? Gone. Leaders like Chris Dodd, Harry Reid and many other Dem senators up in 2010? Gone. The '94 elections will look like a blip compared to the washout the Dems will have in 2010.

I'm also hoping that should the Dems go through with this, the GOP in the current Senate should shut the place down. Don't let anything through. No nominations, no legislation. Anything they can stop, they should.

If it's civil war they want, it's civil war they're gonna get.

Chris Dodd Gets an Excuse to Retire

Sen. Chris Dodd has a health problem. Too bad he lives in a country with such a crappy health care system:

Chris Dodd tells the Hartford Courant that he's being treated during the recess for "early-stage prostate cancer," and that he'll return to the campaign trail soon thereafter. He'll discuss it at a news conference this afternoon.

A health story like this, for a senator in a tough race who's had nudges to resign, instantly raises the question of whether he'll really return to office -- and Dodd advisor Jim Jordan offered an instant, forceful answer:

"The condition was caught extremely early; the procedure will be as routine as it can be; he’ll be down, out of commission for just two or three weeks; his health is otherwise superb; this in no way whatsoever affects his re-election plans," he wrote in an email.

If only he lived somewhere with a single-payer program like Britain, he'd do so much better.

But maybe not. Don Surber has the numbers:

Because he lives in the United States, he has a 99% chance of surviving prostate cancer for five years or longer.

Under universal health care, in England, his chances of surviving prostate cancer for 5 years would be only 74%.

The data is here (LINK).

In England, his chances of dying from prostate cancer would be 26 times higher.

Don’t worry, England. Obamacare will close the gap.

He still plans to campaign for the seat he's likely to lose next year, but if he needs an excuse to retire, he's now got one. He just better hope he gets this thing fixed before Obamacare kicks in.

The GOP Recovery

W. James Antle III tells us there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Republicans:

Beneath the prognostications of doom and gloom, however, Republicans are showing real signs of life. The GOP is heavily favored to take the governorship in New Jersey this year, where Republican Chris Christie leads by double digits in some polls. Republicans are slight favorites in the Virginia governor's race, despite an increasing Democratic trend in the Old Dominion over the past few elections.

If the 2010 elections were held today, Republicans would pick up a Senate seat in Connecticut (if the Democrats don't get Chris Dodd first) and have an even shot of reclaiming Arlen Specter's in Pennsylvania -- the latter by running a former president of the Club for Growth. Republicans would even win a one-on-one race against Gov. Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, one of the nation's bluest states.

According to both NPR and Rasmussen Reports, Republicans now lead in the generic congressional ballot. National Republicans have succeeded in getting their top choices to run for Senate in Illinois and Florida. Delaware may not be far behind. Just this week, they managed to nudge their most vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, into retirement, improving their chances in that state.

House Republicans are faring even better at candidate recruitment. They have a target-rich environment, as the Democratic majority is padded with the votes of red-state congressmen who in 2006 and 2008 won districts where Obama was unpopular back when his national approval ratings were above 60 percent. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the GOP's congressional campaign committee, boasts that he will make a play for 80 Democratic-held seats next year.

Voters were desperate for change in 2006 and 2008. Well, they got it and now they don't like it. Suddenly the GOP is starting to look like grown-ups again compared to the petulant Democrats who are desperate to get their way as the run toward their socialist utopia.

The voters took a snooze in '06 & '08. They're waking up now.

Dodd and Conrad Got Sweetheart Loan Deals From Countrywide

We've all known this all along, but Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) have more reason to worry these days:

Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.

Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn't know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.

Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.

Robert Feinberg, who worked in Countrywide's VIP section, told congressional investigators last month that the two senators were made aware that "who you know is basically how you're coming in here."

"You don't say 'no' to the VIP," Feinberg told Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.

The next day, Feinberg testified before the Senate Ethics Committee, an indication the panel is actively investigating two of the chamber's more powerful members:

• Dodd heads the Banking Committee and is a major player in two big areas: solving the housing foreclosure and financial crises and putting together an overhaul of the U.S. health care system. A five-term senator, he is in a tough fight for re-election in 2010, partly because of the controversy over his mortgages.

• Conrad chairs the Budget Committee. He, too, shares an important role in the health care debate, as well as on legislation to curb global warming.

Of course they got sweet deals. That's one of the reason people become senators - perks.

Unfortunately for Conrad and Dodd, Countrywide turned out to be a big failure and their lack of oversight contributed. It may well cost Dodd his seat in 2010 and Conrad may not be far behind.

Department of the Treasury Seeking Comedians

They already have a Treasury Secretary who couldn't figure out TurboTax, how much funnier to they want to be?

However, here's an actual job posting from the Treasury Department:

This is a sources sought notice and not a request for quotations. The purpose of this announcement is to seek qualified contractors with the capability to provide presentations for The Department of Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD), Management Meeting with experience in meeting the objectives as described herein.

The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life. Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience.
Upon completion of the course, participants shall be able to:

• Understand the importance and power of humor in the workplace in a responsible manner
• How to use talents in a creative way that adds humor to everyday experiences
• Alleviate stress in home and the office
• Know how and why humor is important to communication
• Improve work-place relationships
• Prevent burn-out

Hey, sign me up! I could do 3 hours on humor in the workplace, though my cartoon drawing skills are lacking. All I would have to do is talk about Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken, Al Sharpton, Barney Frank...Geez, the list goes on and on. I'd have a hard time getting all that humor in under 3 hours.

UPDATE: The program has been killed after being ridiculed on multiple sites.

All Politics is Loco

That's Michael Barone's description of what is going on in Washington these days:

Disarray. That's one word to describe the status of the Obama administration's legislative program as Congress heads into its final four weeks of work before the August recess. A watered-down cap-and-trade bill passed the House narrowly last month, but Sen. Barbara Boxer has decided not to bring up her version in the upper chamber until September.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, who promised a health care bill last month, still isn't delivering, and neither is the health committee's Christopher Dodd. They're both trying to nibble down cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which has put the price tag at a trillion or more. But their latest ploys -- broad-based tax increases, transferring more of the Medicaid burden to the states -- sound like sputtering. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Harry Reid says he's taken off the table one approach that has potential bipartisan support -- ending the tax preference for employer-provided insurance.

In the House, there is more chaos. Commerce committee Chairman Henry Waxman has delayed the health care markup he had planned for this week, giving the administration and House leaders a chance to win over balky Blue Dog Democrats. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel is also stymied, and says all he knows about agreements that the White House has struck with various health groups (pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, health maintenance organizations) is what he reads in the papers.

All this sounds like muddling by incompetents, but in fact these Democratic legislators are (mostly) highly competent and they are trying to do very hard things: restructure government regulation of -- or establish government control over -- one-sixth (health care) and one-tenth (energy) of the economy. And they're dealing with a president who has shown a striking lack of interest in details and whose single legislative achievement so far -- the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February -- has visibly failed in its asserted goal of holding unemployment down to 8 percent.

It turns out that details matter, a lot, when you're slinging around great gobs of dollars. Barack Obama let congressional appropriators write the stimulus package. The result, according to the Government Accountability Office, is that only $29 billion had been spent as of June 19, 90 percent of it for Medicaid and "the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund administered by the Department of Education."

Translation: The money has gone to state governments in fiscal trouble because of declining revenues and (in some cases) profligate spending. This insulates public employees union members from the painful effects of recession that are being felt by almost everyone else, with the added political benefit of channeling money to unions, which in turn channel some of it to Democratic politicians.

There's more about sweetheart deals and general incompetence here. Read it all.

Protecting Us From the Wrong Things

You just know this isn't going to work out well:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is calling for new financial "rules of the road" that he says would protect Americans from devastating future economic crises.

The president's broad set of changes in financial regulation would give the Federal Reserve new authority and create a new agency to protect consumers in their banking transactions.

Obama said Wednesday that an absence of oversight over Wall Street resulted in systematic and systemic abuse that increased financial risks for both families and large firms.

He said his plan is the biggest transformation in financial rules since the Great Depression. The plan will now be considered by Congress.

So, where is the agency that will protect us from congressmen who insisted that lenders make loans that people couldn't repay? It's wasn't a lack of oversight that collapsed the banks and Wall Street firms, but the heavy hand of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters, and others who wouldn't let them make prudent lending decisions.

Where is the agency that will protect us from the inflation that's bound to occur thanks to massive federal deficits? Who's going to stop the devastating expansion of the federal government that will rob us of our money and liberty?

Obama is protecting us from the wrong things.

Dodd and Schumer: Freeze Credit Card Rates

I have mixed feelings on this one:

Sens. Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd are going to send a letter this afternoon to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, asking him to impose an emergency freeze for credit card interest rate hikes.

The Fed has already implemented a rule that would forbid credit card companies from raising rates on borrowers on existing balances; however, that rule does not go into effect until July 2010.

The senators want the Fed to implement the rule using its emergency powers immediately.

On one hand we know that when Dodd and Schumer get involved, industries fall at the expense of taxpayers. On the other hand the credit card companies are sharks.

Hard to pick a favorite in this one.