"All roads lead to Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac," Limbaugh said, trying to pin every Wall Street misdeed on the Democrats for their involvement with Freddie and Fannie. Message: the WHOLE meltdown of Wall Street is Barney Frank's fault. The risky loans at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae FORCED American International Group (AIG) to make risky loans; it FORCED Merrill Lynch to make risky deals; it FORCED Bear Stearns executives to fail us; it FORCED Lehman Brothers executives to cook the books!
It’s all your fault, Barney Frank, according to Limbaugh. Everything comes back to you. This is nuts, but it's going out into the general public every day from 12-3pm Eastern. Wake up, Democrats! Time to punch back! If you don’t, these talking points are going to stick in the jaws of your would-be supporters.
The Spin Twins hope the media will accept the Corrupublican Party spokesperson revision of history without fact-checking first. They hope Democrats don't have the fortitude to call them out and set the record straight with an aggressive counter-attack. Their gamble may be working.
Here's a look at the way Democrats could punch back: In 2003, the year President Bush "proposed" (ha!) regulation for Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court and the Media. Think back to that year. Republicans passed everything with haste, arguing that national security depended on it. Republicans could have passed a law banning dog ownership over the objection of every Democrat (not just Christopher Dodd and his magical pocket veto), completed their objective and maintained 80 percent approval ratings.
Republicans controlled the committees. Here's a look at just some of the reform legislation targeting Fannie Mae that Democrats tried to pass in those dark days: H.R.2117 introduced 23 May 2003 by Rep. Pete Fortney (D-CA,13); H.R.2897 introduced on 25 July 2003 by Rep. Julia Carson (D-IN,7); S.1656, introduced 23 September 2003 by Sen Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ); H.R.3507 introduced 18 November 2003 by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA,27). All of these bills died in Republican-controlled committees.
In fact, Democrats could not pass reform legislation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until they controlled Congress. It was BARNEY FRANK who introduced legislation to reform federal housing finance! And it passed! UNDER DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP!
Democratic leaders need to respond to these falsehoods as if they came from the mouth of Roy Blunt or John Boehner (pronounced BOH-ner). They are making this bailout political and Democrats cannot afford not to!
If polls begin to swing back toward McCain and in Congressional races it is because Democrats continue to ignore the lie and smear Corrupublican Company spokespeople operating 6 hours-a-day on radio.
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