By Douglas V. Gibbs
Doug Hoffman, the conservative independent running against two liberals (one with an "R" for Republican after her name) in New York's 23rd District is making a lot of friends, and a lot of enemies.
Many Republicans don't like Doug Hoffman because his campaign is taking a lot of votes away from Dede Scozzafava - and for those Republicans, the issues don't really matter, it is all about party. Democrats don't like Doug Hoffman because he has surged into the lead and may beat both Scozzafava, and Democrat Bill Owens, in the upcoming special election, thus taking away a vote that will coddle Obama's big government proposals.
Conservatives love Doug Hoffman because he is a true Reagan Conservative, and would be running as a Republican if the GOP hadn't picked pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-tax hikes, pro-Cap and Trade, pro-Obamacare, pro-ACORN, pro-stimulus, pro-bank bailout, pro-big government Dede Scozzafava to be the Republican choice on the ballot.
Party hacks are endorsing Dede, while true conservatives have been throwing in their hat for Doug Hoffman. And with all of the attention, Doug Hoffman has surged into the lead, and has a serious opportunity to win this thing.
A true test on how dangerous you are to the Leftists is to monitor their reactions. The louder, and more vicious, they get in their opposition to you is usually a good indicator you are on the right track, and have them shaking in their boots. Being attacked by the left is a badge of honor, and proves you are hitting a chord.
"Accountable America," a hard left, radical leftist organization started by former MoveOn official Tom Matzzie, has taken up the mantle, and is firing away at Doug Hoffman with both barrels blazing (wait, liberals don't fire guns - hmmm, with both flower vases bloomin'? Both unicorns prancing?), beginning with an attack ad they plan to be playing all weekend during college and professional football games in the upstate New York district.
The video, which is at the bottom of this post, accuses Doug Hoffman of being in cahoots with the enemy that caused all of this financial crisis we are going through, the banks. You see, the left has decided that the banks caused all of the economic problems we are encountering (or when that argument doesn't work, then it's all Bush's fault), and anybody that is not a hard left radical liberal and has any association with the banking industry is automatically the enemy too. Never mind Barney Frank's, or Chris Dodd's, or any other number of Democrat's hands in the pot in the banking industry (including shady dealings with Fannie and Freddie). Therefore, Doug Hoffman, because they say he's a banking industry ally and investor, should not be elected. Instead, upstate New York deserves a leftist who desires increased government control over anything and everything that touches our lives.
errrrrr - wrong answer!
Even if everything they said about the banking industry being the sole factor of the economic collapse, and Doug Hoffman's involvement in the industry, was true, I would still vote for him over a Marxist like Scozzafava or Owens.
But, for the sake of argument, let's take a look at the financial meltdown, and see if those evil banks are the cause - and note: I know that "bankers" of the international persuasion are dangerous folks, and are pushing for a system of global governance, but let's not get the evil international bankers, and bankers pushing for a centralized national bank, mixed up with the not-so-evil local banks that have been so regulated by the government that making a profit has become dang-near impossible, shall we?
Our economic crisis has a number of causes, and the blame-game has been used aplenty. The leftists, and a number of Republicans, believed that immediate action was necessary to stabilize the banking system as the feces hit the oscillating air mover. So, in short, their solution was to pump government money into the banking system to save the very businesses they believed to be at fault for the crisis - and then allow more government intervention into the system when it was government tinkering that was one of the major causes of the meltdown in the first place.
Depression-era regulatory structures, coupled with the kind of thinking that brought about the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (which encouraged risky lending practices because "everyone deserves to own a home"), placed rules upon the banks that was outside safe lending practices. The credit community, in the interest of being fair to those less fortunate, were encouraged (and actually sometimes mandated) to extend credit to people that were high risk, and may ultimately cost the banks dearly in the long run.
As the government continued to place strict controls and rules on the banking industry, essentially dictating to the banks on how to run their business, the regulations of banking and financial markets did not place the global market into the line of thinking, while dividing the regulatory jurisdictions and authorities into a number of separate agencies that do not share information, and operate on outmoded assumptions.
Congressional involvement then created a conflict of interests. How could people like Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters and Barney Frank, for example, investigate and find errors in Fannie and Freddie when their tentacles were buried deep into the pot with various investments and interests? Then, when in 2003, George W. Bush and the Congressional Republicans suggested changing the regulations that governed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because Bush, and his advisers, saw the possibility of a problem arising that could lead to a financial collapse, the same Barney Frank that had his tentacles deep into the pot slammed the Republicans, calling Fannie and Freddie a sure thing, and too sound to have any problems.
In fact, at that time, Barney Frank stated: "I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis."
So, part of the cause of the collapse was poor lending practices, which were mandated by the CRA of 1977. Another part of the problem was ignoring the possible problem erupting, of which the Democrats poo-pooed in 2003 when the Republicans tried to take action to avert the coming crisis which wound up striking us in 2007. Ultimately, one of the primary causes was mistakes of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs like Fannie and Freddie), some private companies, and Congress. Then, after government intrusion, and government failure to recognize and take action when the potential problem was brought to their attention in 2003, destroyed the system, and caused our economic slow-down. Big government Democrats says it is through their intervention, and take over of the banking industry, that can fix the problem. It was they that blocked the free market from going through its natural ups and downs, and it was they that made sure the next down-slope on the roller coaster ride of the economy was extreme - then, the left lied about their involvement, and now dares attack Doug Hoffman for being involved with bankers when it was the leftists that were the primary cause of the financial collapse.
It's like a fox accusing the farmer of stealing the chickens from the hen house because they caught him inside with a chicken in his hands, while the fox has feathers sticking out of his mouth.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
h/t Simon Owens
Barney Frank on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003 - Tax Foundation
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