Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

Barney Frank is as responsible as anyone for the current credit crisis, having run interference for Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae’s disastrous policies for years. Having now, finally, come under criticism for his role in the Fanny/Freddy/subprime fiasco, Frank has resorted to the most contemptible of dodges:

Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation’s housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that’s racially motivated.

The Massachusetts Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the GOP is appealing to its base by blaming the country’s mortgage foreclosure problem on efforts to expand affordable housing through the Community Reinvestment Act.

“They get to take things out on poor people,” Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston. “Let’s be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn’t hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people.”

Let’s be honest: if Barney Frank had a shred of integrity, he would resign. And no Democrat is any position to weigh in against anger in politics.

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