BIPARTISAN MAJORITY DEFIES BUSH OVER MORTGAGE CRISIS

Barney & Maxine: problem solvers

While Republican House leaders wring their hands and rend their clothes fretting over why voters are massively rejecting their candidates and worrying that the GOP minority could easily lose another 2 or 3 dozen House members in November, all they need to do is look in the mirror to figure it out. And blaming hapless schnooks like Vito, Vitter or Larry Craig isn't going to do the trick. They are the party of obstructionism and the party that is standing in the way of progress, preventing an end to the occupation of Iraq, preventing universal health care, preventing sound environmental and energy policies, preventing, in fact, everything that the American people want!

Yesterday their despised leader, George Bush, threatened to veto a foreclosure bill that would attempt to help families and neighborhoods that have been victimized by predatory lenders who have been enabled by out-of-control Republican deregulation mania. Today the House passed the first of two of the bills Bush was railing against, Maxine Waters' Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008. Only one Blue Dog, Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) voted with the Republicans. Eleven Republicans-- all of whom are either retiring or in grave danger of losing their re-election bids in November-- abandoned their party's reactionary leadership and voted with the Democrats (even including such inveterate rubber stamps as the Diaz-Balart brothers in Florida and Steven LaTourette of Ohio).

While Bush was eager to shovel hundreds of billions of dollars towards the predatory lenders to shore up their businesses and even to provide irresponsible and possible criminal executive with multimillion dollar bonuses for causing the collapse of the real estate market, he dug in his heels on Water's attempt to "make federal money available in loans and grants for the rehabilitation and eventual sale or rental of blighted properties."

And just moments ago, the House also passed the companion bill, Barney Franks' American Housing Rescue & Foreclosure Prevention Act, a responsible and comprehensive response to the nightmare of the Bush Economic Miracle. It seeks to assist families facing foreclosure keep their homes, help other families avoid foreclosures in the future, and, with Maxine Waters' bill, help the recovery of communities harmed by empty homes caught in the foreclosure process. The bill, which Bush swears he will veto and McConnell vows to obstruct in the Senate, provide mortgage refinancing assistance, which will help keep families from losing their homes and protect neighboring home values. Barney's bill was voted on in 3 parts and dozens of Republicans were too frightened of the constituents to oppose the bill. On Roll Call 302, in fact, 95 Republicans gave Bush and their extremist leaders the finger and joined all the Democrats to pass it overwhelmingly and with a veto-proof majority. In fact only 94 Republicans voted with Bush. It passed 322-94, one of Bush's biggest defeats since he stole the presidency in 2000. Only the most insane kooks and loons-- The Dana Rohrabachers, John Shadeggs, Michael McCauls, Mean Jean Schmidts, and Scott Garretts hung in there with Boehner, Blunt, Cole and Howdy Doody.

The GOP strategy is to have Mitch McConnell filibuster both bills to death in the Senate and to use Bush's veto pen as a backup. And they wonder why they're unable to persuade even hard core Republican districts in Illinois and Louisiana to vote for their rubber stamp candidates? Even rank and file Republican voters have turned on Bush. While his overall approval rating continues to plummet to the lowest levels yet among normal Americans, only 6 in 10 GOP voters like the job he's doing. 7% of Democrats-- presumably Blue Dogs like Chris Carney, John Barrow, Leonard Boswell, Melissa Bean, Heath Shuler, Jim Marshall, and Nick Lampson who always rubber stamp his decisions-- approve of the job he's doing. (Hopefully, Democratic primary voters in Iowa and Georgia, will realize it isn't only admitted Republicans bolstering Bush's toxic regime, but some of their own representatives as well.) If Barrow and Boswell are defeated in their primary bids-- the way Al Wynn was-- you can bet your ass that crossover support for the Bush-Cheney agenda will drop precipitously among the treacherous Blue Dogs. Both of their opponents, Regina Thomas in Georgia and Ed Fallon in Iowa, are progressive with proven track records and both are up on the Blue America list of endorsees. Please consider supporting them-- and while you do, take a look at Texas Rep. Al Green explain the importance of this legislation-- for all of us:




I asked our newest Blue America endorsee, Debbie Cook, how she thought Orange County voters would react to Rohrabacher's out-of-touch vote today. Her response sounds to me like what most people in America think of the 94 Republican extremists who believe in helping predatory lenders but not hard working families: "It's yet another example of how Rohrabacher is out of touch with the middle class families he is supposed to represent. There are thousands of families in this district losing their homes, losing jobs and many others are struggling to pay for the increased prices of necessities like fuel, food and healthcare. This vote is shocking because it exposes the hypocrisy of those in Congress who bend over backwards to subsidize Wall Street losses, and refuse to lift a finger to help those most affected by the mortgage crisis. We need to have new representatives in Washington who will try to level the playing field for middle class families."


UPDATE: McCONNELL WILL HAVE PLENTY OF HELP IN STOPPING THE HOUSE BILLS FROM EVER BECOMING LAW-- MEET ALABAMA CROOK, RICHARD SHELBY

Tomorrow's NY Times spills the beans on one of the Senate's many personifications of conflict of interest. This particular one, greedy corporatist swine Richard Shelby, is determined to wreck the mortgage bill that would assist distressed homeowners. Shelby has become a multimillionaire-- many times over-- since becoming a Senator and he's done that as a real estate developer and landlord. As the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee there is a great deal of mischief he can commit... and he is.

[O]ver the years, his critics say, Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies.

Indeed, Mr. Shelby’s legislative and business worlds have often intersected. For instance, while on the Banking Committee, he financed an apartment complex he owns in Tuscaloosa with a $5 million loan from Freddie Mac, the same government-sponsored mortgage company whose regulation his committee is reshaping.

Even his efforts to steer federal money to the University of Alabama, where a recently built $60 million science building is named after Mr. Shelby and his wife, Annette, have benefited him. The tens of millions in earmarks have helped the university, his alma mater, grow and attract more students. The tenants of his apartment complex are mostly students.

Mr. Shelby said in an interview his business dealings posed no conflict.

...Others see it differently. “Senator Shelby would have prevented anything going through that the industry was not happy with,” said Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, who has pushed legislation to crack down on predatory lending, an effort that has stalled in the Senate in part because of Mr. Shelby’s reservations. “That’s the sense from all the people who are involved in the issue.”

Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who leads the House Banking Committee and has won points for working with the Bush administration on housing issues, said he had been surprised by Mr. Shelby’s unwillingness to accept several proposals like a permanent increase in the cap to $730,000 from about $360,000 on home loans that can be federally insured.

“I think he has been the major obstacle,” Mr. Frank said, calling it “a serious problem in getting things done.”