Still more on how Democrats helped enable the current economic crisis

I’ve written extensively on how Congressional Democrats played a significant role in the economic crisis unfolding before our eyes. The media and (mostly) lefty pundits want to paint this as either a “Republican Congress/Bush administration” failure or at the very least a “bipartisan” failure where everyone shares the blame, but while I know Republicans probably could have done more to prevent this, I’m not going to sit back while all this is happening and just toe the line that “everyone” is responsible, and I will certainly not accept the emerging theme that it’s all “the GOP’s fault.” Democrats in Congress and their warped policies and priorities were the big players in enabling this meltdown, and should not be trusted today to “solve” the problem. They need to be held responsible and accountable for their actions in the face of overwhelming evidence that shows their prominent contributions to this debacle.

Al Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council and assistant to Pres. Bush from ’05-’07, wrote a piece earlier this month along with former Bush speechwriter and communications direction Noam Neusner, on the Bush administration’s efforts early on in the administration to enact a regulatory/oversight overhall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a piece I referenced here. Hubbard recently appeared on Fox and Friends and was interviewed by Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade on the efforts the administration put into this issue to try and prevent it before it blew up. You can watch the video below:

Hat tip to Ed Morrissey, who summarizes:

Hubbard notes that the Bush administration long supported reform at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also tells viewers that the House managed to pass Fannie/Freddie reform when Republicans had the majority, but Chris Dodd killed it in the Senate Banking Committee. Dodd, Hubbard reminds us, took the most money from Fannie/Freddie sources, and had little incentive to press for tighter oversight.

Where was Dodd? Where was Frank? Where were the recipients of Fannie/Freddie money during the years in which Fannie Mae’s fraudulent business practices were exposed? They were in the pockets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and busy telling us that no problem existed β€” and that regulators who reported the irregularities were racists. They sold us out β€” and the media has let them off the hook.

Outside of Fox News, and one report from ABC News where Bill Clinton (scroll) confirmed the Democrats’ role in this mess, the Boston Herald has been the only other mainstream news media outlet I’ve seen talk/write about – in a straight reporting piece, rather than opinion pieces, which you see more of – the role Democrats like House Financial Services panel chair Rep. Barney Frank (MA) played in the runup to the econ crisis.

As always, please feel free to use the “Email This Post” link at the bottom of this post to get the word out. We can’t rely on the mainstream media to do its job on this issue, so we’ll just have to take it into our own hands to spread the message.

Update – 12:35 PM: ST reader GWR points to this new McCain ad which points out McCain’s efforts on this issue, and Bill Clinton’s affirmation of the role of Republicans in trying to do something about the problem before it got bigger and the role of Democrats in hindering their efforts and enabling the economic crisis. Good job, but I think they should put out another ad showing what Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were saying way back when versus what they are saying now. Or maybe that could be a new RNC ad, since House and Senate Republicans are being blamed for what’s happening when in fact several of them tried to do something about the issue years before it escalated into a huge problem.

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