TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Trooper-gate Vs. Finance-Gate

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOHN NASH, Of Cabbages and Kings

Hernando Today

Published: September 23, 2008

In spastic attempt to stem the flow of votes to Republican candidates, Democratic schemers have focused their misguided energies and vast economic resources on trying to dig up political "dirt" (e.g., "trooper-gate"), from the small-town streets of a heretofore peaceful community in Alaska.
Meanwhile, blame for the potentially largest scandal facing the federal government (our economic meltdown) is bounced back and forth like some trivial balloon at a child's fifth birthday party.
Obama's group has cranked up their tired old mantra, which places blame for all economic ills on greedy Republicans, whom are accused because they allegedly controlled Congress and the White House for the past eight years or longer. The Dems would have you believe that only by throwing those rascally old fat cats out of office (especially the oval one) will we have a chance to save ourselves from financial ruin.
However, increasingly surfacing evidence and comment seem to indicate that, although both parties accepted very significant amounts of "hush money" from uncontrolled, out-of-control, greedy, unethical and irresponsible financial institutions and their associates (such as Fannie May and Freddie Mac), the Democrats were at the head of the disgraceful line with their hands out and were primarily responsible for Congress having failed to take timely action to prevent the current financial disaster.
Both Freddie and Fannie are guilty of having made extraordinarily large cash contributions to any and every politician who was for sale. Republicans took some of that dirty money but, apparently, Democrats made up most of the easily corrupted members of Congress.
For example, Democrat Barney Frank, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Financial Services — with the most direct responsibility for subjects such as home loans, insurance and entities such as Fannie and Freddie — is reported to have accepted more than $681,000, in the past year alone, from lobbyists and political action committees representing the narrow and greedy interests of real estate, financial investments, lawyers and insurance.
Although several conscionable members of Congress had been working for years to get corrective measures applied to the clearly dangerous economic bubble of mortgage loans and related investments, legislators (such as Frank, Pelosi and company) were shooting down each and every such effort. Their reasons for such reprehensible actions were generally based on a claim that those proposing investigations and reasonable control of careless — possibly criminal — risks being taken by such as Fannie and Freddie were, in fact, motivated by cruel and heartless Republican attempts to make home ownership difficult to obtain for most of us.
Even though various documents reportedly show that several Republican members of Congress warned of looming disasters, in which giants of the mortgage and investment communities would fail if left uncontrolled, leaving the taxpayer on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars, Democrats, having been paid off by those reckless businesses, managed to kill any proposed investigation or legislation to stop the dangerously speeding train.
Meanwhile, Freddie, Fannie and others caught up in an amoral race to grab as much as they could for themselves, charged ahead with clearly risky financial policies and practices, which, as predicted, finally blew up in their faces, leaving the taxpayers to clean up the mess they created while enriching themselves.
No, the Democrats are not the only rats in the rice bin, but they were apparently the biggest and fattest — particularly since they controlled the pivotal House Committee on Financial Services.
What we need to keep in mind, as this subject plays out amidst the din of frantic diversion efforts by embattled Democrats, is that although far too many of our elected officials are for sale to special interest groups, it appears that the Democrats are primarily responsible for our government having failed to take indicated action to either minimize or prevent the current financial crisis we now face.
If, knowing that, we elect even more Democrats this November, we'll be as guilty as are they for destroying the economic foundation of this nation. Obama's much-touted "change" has little or nothing to do with cleaning up the corruption that made our current economic troubles possible. It has everything to do with the creation of additional mismanaged and sleazy government agencies, with vast increases in welfare and other socialistic practices and with heavy hikes in income taxes for you and me.
Sen. John McCain is hardly a stellar candidate for president, but the alternative is unthinkable — unless, of course, you live in a mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., spend your carefree days on a typically liberal college campus or exist in some other spaced-out part of our troubled nation.

John Nash is a journalist/photographer whose works have, over the past 30 years, been featured in more than130 different publications. He welcomes rational comment sent to him at john@have-eye.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT