Five years ago, it was a certain freshman Senator from Illinois and his fellow Democrats:
[I]n July 2005 . . . the Senate Banking Committee, then controlled by the Republicans, adopted tough regulatory legislation for the GSEs [government-sponsored entities, i.e., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] on a party-line vote — all Republicans in favor, all Democrats opposed. . . .
If legislation along the lines of the Senate committee’s bill had been enacted in that year, many if not all the losses that Fannie and Freddie have suffered, and will suffer in the future, might have been avoided.
Why was there no action in the full Senate? As most Americans know today, it takes 60 votes to cut off debate in the Senate, and the Republicans had only 55. To close debate and proceed to the enactment of the committee-passed bill, the Republicans needed five Democrats to vote with them. But in a 45 member Democratic caucus that included Barack Obama and the current Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), these votes could not be found.
Yup, that’s right. The same Barack Obama who now excoriates Republicans for opposing “reform” joined his Democratic Senate colleagues — including current “reform” advocate Joe Biden — five years ago in filibustering GOP-backed legislation which could have prevented the Fannie/Freddie collapse that helped produce the 2008 meltdown.
Don’t ever accuse Democrats of having no standards. They’ve got two standards: One for them, and one for everybody else.
BTW, this might be a good time to start talking about Goldman Sachs giving $1 million for Obama’s 2008 campaign, don’t you think?
(Hat-tip: Cassy Fiano in the Greenroom.)