PRUDEN: A job for the right woman

The bill failed because of one thing and one thing only: lack of leadership from Nancy Pelosi. Blame does not build confidence. Pointing the finger at those you want to build confidence in and telling them the issue was all their doing doesn't exactly induce them to your leadership. With 40% of her people against the bill, there should have been a clear indicator of uncertainty, yet she decided to pursue blame politics. Risk is based on assumptions and she just validated the one that indicates she can't be trusted. Trust has a lot to do with politics and they don't trust her or the bill that she was trying to strong arm through.

Let it BURN. Fire is the BEST cleanser of things that are toxic. Don't you agree? Nancy Pelosi is going to FIX this? Next thing you're gonna say, is that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd will be the ones to save the day. These are the people who CREATED this mess! Chris Dodd, sitting in the Senate as its' BANKING COMMITEE CHAIRMAN, didn't see this coming? Chris Dodd, who took trainloads of CASH, over the years, from practically EVERY ENTITY that's now GOING UNDER, is going to FIX it? And Barney Frank? As head of the HOUSE FINANCE COMMITTEE, he was UNAWARE of what was headed our way? Apparrently. He's been 'running interference' for a lot of these guys, for years. Blocking REGULATORS, going after the AUDITORS, when they had BAD NEWS to report. He and Dodd have been Poo-pooing the train wreck predictions for Fannie Mae and Franklin Raines-(oops, Fruedian Slip)-I mean, Freddie Mac for YEARS. And why wouldn't they? After all, they HAVE been payed handsomely over the years. The only thing that this Den of THEIVES, and that would be CONGRESS, can do, is MAKE THINGS WORSE. That's what they do. That's what they ALWAYS do. The MARKET will fix itself. Warren Buffet is out there making aquisitions. Failed Banks are being gobbled up. That's the way it's SUPPOSED to work. We're gonna have to eat that "Crap Sandwich" for a little while, but the alternative, and that would be ANY SOLUTION created by CONGRESS, would be a CRAP Thanksgiving Day Dinner, for YEARS. Ya wanna stop this from EVER happening again? We NEED Term Limits. PERIOD.

The "take away" message is Speaker Pelosi is not competent.

The short-term memory of the liberal left elements of our government are astounding. Second only to the short-term memory of the US constituency. The rumblings of a potential financial crisis, particularly as it related to Fannie and Freddie, could be heard coming from conservative lawmakers as recently as 2003. I hear a lot coming from Ms. Pelosi and Senator Obama about how the failed policies of the last eight years led to a culture of greed and was fueled by a lack of oversight. Well, the truth is that both Bush and McCain, were calling for more regulation for GRE's, warning that failure to act would lead to pervasive financial issues. Their effort were shot down by the Barney Franks of the world, who argued that there were no problems to address. Let us not allow history to be rewritten. Facts are facts. Comments were made. Opinions were expressed. Warnings were issued, and all of the partisan politics in the world can't change any of that.

Hey doctorscott (doctor of what??), take a breath and put down the kool-aid. What exactly can you pinpoint in this article that shows Mr. Pruden to be a racist? There is not one thing in any of the paragraphs to suggest racism. He calls it like he sees it. The Dems are responsible for this mess, and that joke of a speaker Nancy Pelosi, instead of showing leadership, simply could not resist taking a swipe at President Bush during "debate" on this issue. It sickens me to realize how far our country has fallen. The reason is not because of President Bush, but because of people like you who keep voting for and supporting idiots like Pelosi, Obama, Biden, Dodd, Frank, Kennedy, et al.

"How many of those loans were taken out by people who bought too much house a mcmansion instead of a home they could afford. Not to mention the speculators. So don't blame poor people." Truthspeaker1 I am in banking...you have know idea what you are talking about. This problem has been percolating for 20 years (CRA, redlining, homeonership as a right, etc.). Social engineering and political correctness is the fundamental cause of this problem. This is the long term pain that was for short term gain...a hallmark of the Left. I blame anyone who sat at the kitchen table and either decided to live beyond their means or rolled the dice on a very risky product (given their credit profile)and came up craps.

Not quite sure why the cry to help out the average tax payer. The people in all 57 states, clinging bitterly to God, guns and now to their life's savings, and Sarah Palin who can see Russia from Alaska, deserve EXACTLY this as they are the one who elected W. second time and causing me to be depressed for 24 hrs folliwing the anouncement of US election results ! Where is God to help them? Perhaps they should all take their guns and head to Wall Street & Capitol Hill!

DoctorScott, I read this three times trying to see what makes the author a racist and don't see it. I guess it's okay for you and anyone who worships Barack Obama as the second coming of Christ to belittle others and call them derisive names but it's "racist" to decide the man is an unqualified "empty suit" based solely on the extensive display of poor judgement he has shown. It seems his two true skills are as an orator and memorizer. That's why I, for one, find him less qualified as a presidential candidate than the character Pee Wee Herman.

What bailout failure are you talking about? Didn’t McCain claim yesterday that he personally had delivered a victory in passing the Bill? His "winning coalition" that he was bragging about before the vote. Even you best attempts at obfuscation, I especially liked your appeal to homophobia, are not going to work this time round. Republicans have spent to long preaching deregulation for people to overlook that fact. And Republicans bragging about their lame attempts to shut Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac in the past are also not going to fly. As that people also know that Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac didn’t originate the loans, they didn’t create the unregulated mortgage derivatives. And that it was Bush in 2004, not Fannie & Freddie who asked the, at the time, Republican Congress for authority to eliminate the down-payment requirement for Federal Housing Administration loans; the things that actually led to crisis the financial markets are in.

I guess Mr. Pruden is deserving of the left wing discourse. He picked a subject that is complex and has about a 20-40 year history. (depending on how far back you go on CRA) The left can only function with a time span that fits on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt. Again it will be up to the adults in the room to fix this mess. Blaming Bush fits well on a bumper sticker, but doesn't resonate with the crowd that has actually looked at CRA, understood when Bill C said he had some responsibility in the housing meltdown. Frank,Biden,Dodd,Obama continued blocking of any oversight w/ FM/FM (how can they when there getting good $$ from FM/FM)...The Dems social experiment on home ownership has failed. Again, I'm rarely surprised by their arrogance and/or ignorance.

This oped is silly Repub talking points and slander. I thought you were going to give McPale some really good advice such as suspending their campaign PERMANENTLY.

doctorscott: wow. 8 sentences and 6 times you called someone a name. Very childish of you. Go back to the playground. Obama's black? Who knew? Thanks for pointing it out.

Hey Noah - An OpEd is typically biased, with no pretense about not being so. That's why it's called "opinion". You didn't know that? Or are you just being obtuse? And who's this McPale person? Never heard of him. Making that up, too?

Kuni conveniently overlooks the fact that Republicans tried to fix this mess a number of times, and that it's a Democrat Idol (the CRA) that caused it. The efforts at fixing the problem were stymied by Democrats, no question. Deregulation is good, always will be. But you can't tie the regulators hands with Democrat policies and expect greed to not take over. The only questions that need to be answered are: Who got the majority of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie? And who voted against reigning them in? Follow the money.

So Nancy Pelosi somehow entered into the minds of innocent Republicans and forced them to do the wrong thing? Give me a break. The Republicans are getting the blame for this disaster (the cherry on the cowpie that is the last 8 years of disaster), and they richly deserve it.