THEY GAVE YOUR MORTGAGE TO A LESS QUALIFIED MINORITY
by Ann Coulter
September 24, 2008

On MSNBC this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter tried to connect John McCain to the current financial disaster, saying: "If you remember the Keating Five scandal that (McCain) was a part of. ... He's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country."

McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as The New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him."

So John McCain has been held hostage by both the Viet Cong and the Democrats.

Alter couldn't be expected to know that: As usual, he was lifting material directly from Kausfiles. What is unusual was that he was stealing a random thought sent in by Kausfiles' mother, who, the day before, had e-mailed: "It's time to bring up the Keating Five. Let McCain explain that scandal away."

The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away -- repeatedly. It was celebrated lawyer Robert Bennett, most famous for defending a certain horny hick president a few years ago.

In February this year, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," Bennett said, for the eight billionth time:

"First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him."

It's bad enough for Alter to be constantly ripping off Kausfiles. Now he's so devoid of his own ideas, he's ripping off the idle musings of Kausfiles' mother.

Even if McCain had been implicated in the Keating Five scandal -- and he wasn't -- that would still have absolutely nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis currently roiling the financial markets. This crisis was caused by political correctness being forced on the mortgage lending industry in the Clinton era.

Before the Democrats' affirmative action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains."

Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.

Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee."

Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke -- it's a fact.

When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices.

In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative action lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded."

Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses.

A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off.

In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.

Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats.

Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.

Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Spin spin spin, Blame it on the democrats. Cuntler dislikes Democrats as much if not more than I dislike republicans, But I don't try and spin the shit republicans do to fuck the common man or the society as a whole. There is no need to, as they do a fine job of actually doing what I say they did. I find it so amusing that the repukes have to index everrything that has gone wrong under 8 years of Bush to Clnton, yeah, it was all old Bills' fault, Pathetic.

__________________
Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Point out the "spin," The woman makes some very good points in that article. Instead of attacking, keep an open mind, put your biases aside, and try to gain something from the information provided in the article. Now again ... where's the spin?

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Ann Coulter is the conservative counterpart to Michael Moore. She is very obviously biased, and has made a killing selling republicans just what they want to hear.

If she doesn't twist issues then neither does Fahrenheit 9/11 or loose change...

next time you post an ann coulter article vi, you might want to leave out the authors name

__________________
If god dropped acid, would he see people?

The result of mixing socialism and capitalism. Financial disaster.

__________________
.Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
Harry S. Truman

And yet ... the spin hasn't been pointed out. Come on Med ... you can do it ... I know you can!

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

The spin Vi, is she is blaming Bill Clinton for this mess. Look, the republican party has had control of this country for the last 12 years, 6 years unapposed. Even if it were true that the whole debacle was Clintons fault (I seriously doubt it), they had at least 6 fucking years to fix it. No VI, it is squarely on Dubyas head this shitcan full of mess. spin it anyway you like. Hey maybe we can blame old George, Washington that is, He must have seen this coming, ~LOL~. This is typical right wing bullshit. Blame it on Clinton. Everytime the repukes get caught with their pants down, Must have been Clintons fault, So transparent, actually, spin spin spin.

__________________
Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Are there Republicans involved? Sure. There are also Republicans who have tried to get strickter oversight on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, only to be shot down by the Democrat Congress. The crux of the matter is ... not everyone should have a mortgage. That's where the Democrats, along with Clintoon, are to blame. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, and our entire financial foundation is about to crumble ... those who are to blame, and yet still in charge, DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

What is it about this do you not fathom?

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

those who are to blame, and yet still in charge, DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
I'm assuming you are talking about the Bush cronys and their no interference plan. Yes I agree, they don't know what to do, at least the right thing to do. I'm no economics professor but, I think if you are handing out Billions without any oversight or repayment plans laid out you must be a fucking idiot. I mean, If I loaned my neighbor a thousand bucks, I'd certainly get the repayment details on paper, with dates of payments and a final payoff date. Just who are the players getting this money, do they have a name, and how much is each one getting. To hand Paulson 700 Billion bucks to do what he wants, well what could go wrong there, especially if there is a no recourse clause and a no involvement clause. Damn, I wish I were related to Paulson, I'm sure some of that money would find its way my way.

__________________
Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.