Didn't really learn anything from ethanol, did ya?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Apparently we didn’t learn much, if anything, from the ethanol boondoggle, Solyndra or Washington’s other adventures in meddling in the markets. If we had, perhaps Congress would not currently be considering passage of H.R. 1380, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions [...]

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1. Freddie Mac’s Regulator Says Trades Were Shut Down Because They Were “Risky”
2. Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to the Congress – Housing Regulator Failed to Stop Fannie, Freddie Mortgage Issues
3. FAIL | Reports Fault Regulator of Fannie, Freddie

Uh oh.

Awfully thoughtful of the Times to toss this grenade in his lap just hours before Nevadans head out to caucus. Then again, what’s the worst that can happen? He loses by 30 points instead of 25? You know who this benefits? Once he became speaker in 1995, Mr. Gingrich’s support loomed large as the companies [...]

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1. FAIL | Reports Fault Regulator of Fannie, Freddie
2. Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to the Congress – Housing Regulator Failed to Stop Fannie, Freddie Mortgage Issues
3. Fannie and Freddie’s Regulator Opposes Making Mortgage Giants Subject to FOIA

Plus, "wherever you're from"?

To call Eric Holder’s performance yesterday at the House Oversight Committee hearing unimpressive is to turn understatement into a kind of art form.  The Washington Examiner called it “petulant, angry, and defiant,” and Holder more concerned about how Congress treats him than the hundreds of dead bodies strewn about Mexico and the US from weapons [...]

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Hmmm.

Eric Holder goes back up the Hill today to tell Congress that he doesn’t have to share his e-mails with anyone, but that may be a little too late.  A new report from Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley allege that Holder deputy Lanny Breuer gave the ATF a green light on a “different [...]

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Check your mail.

So much of the State of the Union speech ends up being a rehash. Few if any items are truly new; usually the ideas proposed by a President in a SOTU have already floated around Capitol Hill for a while, and are included to either provoke a reaction or to signal allies in Congress to [...]

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Buying votes?

We got a big hint of this new proposal from Barack Obama in last week’s State of the Union message, and now Obama has rolled out his proposal to accelerate mortgage refinancing to bolster the housing market. However, it has at least one poison pill that will make it nearly impossible to get Congress to [...]

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Strategy.

If he’s leaving Congress, he’s not leaving without a fight. Javier Manjarres had it first, now WaPo has details: Tea party firebrand Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) announced Tuesday that he will switch districts and run for reelection in Florida’s new 18th district… Rep. Tom Rooney’s (R-Fla.) decision earlier Tuesday to run in the open and [...]

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1. Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners
2. FHFA Statement on Freddie Mac “Refinance” Story RE Betting Against American Homeowners
3. Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to the Congress – Housing Regulator Failed to Stop Fannie, Freddie Mortgage Issues

Musical chairs.

Via Legal Insurrection and our own J.E. Dyer in the Greenroom. According to WaPo, the new congressional map under consideration in Florida’s legislature would make West’s district four points more Democratic than it is now — a tough haul for a guy who lost that district by nine points in 2008 before riding the big [...]

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Musical chairs.

Via Legal Insurrection and our own J.E. Dyer in the Greenroom. According to WaPo, the new congressional map under consideration in Florida’s legislature would make West’s district four points more Democratic than it is now — a tough haul for a guy who lost that district by nine points in 2008 before riding the big [...]

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Plus, Republicans get edge on tax policy.

Congress returned to Washington this month with an urgency to pass a year-long extension to the payroll-tax holiday, a reduction in FICA withholding that began last year as a means to stimulate the economy.  With the annual GDP increase below 2% at best, it’s hard to argue that it had much impact, and yet Barack [...]

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1. The Bears Explain Links between OTC Derivatives, the Financial Crisis of 2008, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Jon Corzine and MF Global
2. Interview | Tough Questions for New CEO Bill Beckmann at Embattled MERS
3. 60 Minutes | Congress: Trading Stock on Inside Information?

Forget redistricting: The real reason for his retirement.

What — did you think that because he is retiring from Congress you wouldn’t have to hear about him ever again? Very sorry to bring him up, but here’s a shameless bit of salacious gossip for y’all: Engaged: Barney Frank, 71, and longtime partner Jim Ready, 42, the congressman’s office confirmed for us Thursday, following a report by [...]

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1. Report | Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Oversight of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s Executive Compensation Programs
2. SIGTARP Report | Extraordinary Financial Assistance Provided to Citigroup, Inc.
3. The Subtle Nationalization of the Banks and Housing Market – How the Taxpayers Support the Banks through Pseudo Nationalization – We Own the Financial Junk and the Banks Collect the Profits – The Stunning SIGTARP Report

An emotional day on Capitol Hill.

As so much of her story has been, Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ last day in Congress was an emotional one, The L.A. Times reports. Everyone from her closest friend in the chamber, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to current Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor [...]

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1. Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to the Congress – Housing Regulator Failed to Stop Fannie, Freddie Mortgage Issues
2. Veterans March For Occupy Wall Street – And It’s Like Nothing You’ve Ever Seen Before
3. HONORING VETERANS IN FORECLOSURE

Safe at home.

In the end, Michele Bachmann provided no surprises in her post-presidential bid path: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann announced Wednesday she will seek a fourth term in the U.S. House following her failed presidential bid. Bachmann declared her plans in an interview with The Associated Press. The Republican congresswoman had been mum on her plans since [...]

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Change, ad infinitum.

Last night, I tweeted that I would read the State of the Union speech instead of watching it on TV, and give myself two hours of my life that would otherwise have been wasted. It turned out to be an easy read, since for the third year in a row, it was written at the [...]

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The buck stops there, part II.

Barack Obama isn’t happy that he’s perceived as cold and aloof, and he knows exactly who’s at fault for that perception.  No, it’s not himself, silly.  Obama blames a group that has obviously disliked him from the start … the media: “You know, the truth is, actually, when it comes to Congress, the issue is [...]

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Hacktastic.

An early nudge from our studiously impartial media to its readers that the proper way to think about Romney’s wealth is in terms of what better uses it might be put to. Emphasis on “Romney’s wealth,” though: Oddly enough, you rarely see hack features like this aimed at Congress’s filthy rich Democrats, whose redistributionist fervor [...]

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1. A Must See – Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) Hearing on Foreclosure Fraud and Robo-Signers
2. Warren Out, Cordray In | Cordray is Obama’s choice to lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
3. Obama Defies Republicans, Plans to Bypass Congress and Install Richard Cordray as Head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

1. NY Times Editorial | Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures
2. Mitt Romney Fund-raiser,T. Martin Fiorentino Jr, Lobbied for Foreclosure Firm, Lender Processing Services
3. Kathleen “Blame the Victim” Passidomo Endorses Presidential Candidate Mitt “The Foreclosurer” Romney

1. Lee Camp | The Numbers Behind Occupy Wall Street #OWS
2. Lee Camp | Is Occupy Wall Street Having An Effect?
3. Lee Camp | Afraid To Stand Up Against Your Corporate Abusers? Try Some Occupy!

1. Fannie, Freddie CEOs Agree to Face Congress Over Bonuses this Wednesday
2. Freddie Mac Seek $6 Billion of Treasury Aid After Executives Get Big Cash Bonuses (MILLIONS)
3. November 5th 2011 Bank Transfer Day | Operation Cash Back #OpCashBack

The buck stops (anywhere but) here.

Remember Harry Truman?  Barack Obama certainly wants to take a page out of Truman’s political playbook this year by running against a supposedly do-nothing Congress.  However, Obama seems to have forgotten that Truman could make that claim after proclaiming that “the buck stops here” for responsibility in his administration.  For Obama on the Keystone XL [...]

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"I'm getting better. Every day, my spirit is high."

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will resign from Congress later this week, ending speculation as to her intentions for the 2012 elections. Today, she published this video to her constituents on her website, thanking them for their prayers and asking them to continue working for their district: Arizona is my home. Always will be. A lot has [...]

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Did federal officials break state laws?

Congress already has two probes of the ATF and Department of Justice over Operation Fast and Furious, looking into whether federal officials broke federal laws and lied to Congress about the loss of almost 2,000 weapons in Mexico. Some of those weapons got used in violent crimes in Arizona, including the murder of a Border [...]

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Paying the PIPA on Tuesday?

In darkness, there is apparently much sunlight.  As a number of Internet sites either went dark or protested the proposed anti-piracy bills circulating in Congress, a number of sponsors ran for cover, reports The Hill: GOP Sens. Roy Blunt (Mo.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), John Boozman (Ark.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) dropped their support for the [...]

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