Is Barney Frank the Right's Poster Boy for the $$ Crisis Because He's Gay?

GOP-friendly media such as Fox News have targeted openly gay congressman Barney Frank in an attempt to lay blame for the current financial crisis at the Democrats' feet, according to other news outlets.

An Oct. 6 article in the Huffington Post observes that Fox News and the Business and Media Institute have zeroed in on Frank for having been romantically involved with Herb Moses, whose relationship with Frank, as well as his tenure as a Fannie Mae executive, both ended a decade ago.

That the relationship ended well in advance of the financial meltdown, however, has not stopped the conservative news outlets from painting Frank as having had a conflict of interest and being an obstructionist who worked against what those news outlets now say were attempts by the Bush administration to bring the troubled financial giants under tighter regulation.

The Huffington Post notes that it was the day after Frank appeared on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program (and contradicted O'Reilly's assertions) that Fox News published a story claiming that the media had looked the other way during Frank and Moses' long-ended relationship because of Frank's status as an openly gay man.

The Fox News item also claimed that Frank had exerted "efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s."

Fox News also noted that Moses was with Fannie Mae "from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie."

The issue of Frank's sexuality seemed to overshadow critical analysis of the events that led up to the current financial crisis, with the Fox News article offering few details as to the purported cause and effect of Frank and Moses' relationship ten years ago and the financial crisis of today.

The Fox News article did contain a quote from an unnamed "top GOP House aide," who was quoted as saying of Frank, "C'mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?"

Added the unnamed source, "No media ever takes note?

"Imagine what would happen if Frank's political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [former chairman Mike] Oxley's wife or McCain's wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation's housing and banking laws."

The article also quoted from a piece authored by Moses and published in 1991 in the Washington Post, in which Moses said, "I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus."

Added Moses, "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

The Huffington Post article said that the Fox News story was a re-write of a Sept. 24 article published by the right-wing Business and Media Institute, in which it was claimed that the media had glossed over the "conflict of interest" that arose from Frank being romantically involved with Moses.

The Business and Media Institute story also pointed out that Fannie Mae had contributed campaign funds to Frank: "more than $40,000... since 1989," said the article, which identified Frank as "one of Fannie Mae's main defenders in the House" and mentioned Frank's romantic involvement with Moses in the same sentence.

The Huffington Post cited the Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and the Federal Reserve, all of which contradicted the suggestion that Frank had directly had a hand in creating the fiscal disaster that overtook Fannie Mae and sister corporation Freddie Mac.

The Huffington Post quoted those sources as determining that the economic calamity "was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for US. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004," six years after the end of Frank's relationship with Moses, and six years after Moses left Fannie Mae.

That did not sway the conservative news outlets. The Fox News item used a quotation that had appeared in the Business and Media Institute piece, and which originated with the vice president of the Business and Media Institute, Dan Gainor.

Said Gainor, who the Huffington Post noted appears often on the Fox Business Network, "If this had been his ex-wife and [Congressman Frank] was Republican, I would bet every penny I have--or at least what's not in the stock market--that this would be considered germane."

Added Gainor, "But everybody wants to avoid it because he's gay.

"It's the quintessential double standard."

The Business and Media Institute piece also cited Frank's having said that the personal life of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a social conservative whose pregnant daughter is unmarried, should not be off-limits in the media, and implied that Frank's own personal involvement with Moses should therefore be scrutinized in terms of the financial meltdown.

However, the issue of a double standard applied unevenly to gay versus straight (or Democratic versus Republican) public figures seemed to have little to do with solid analysis of the origins of the financial meltdown.

The Huffington Post quoted Frank's correction of O'Reilly the day before the Fox News article appeared.

Frank said, "You've misrepresented this consistently."

Continued Frank, "I became chairman of the committee on January 31st, 2007. Less than two months later, I did what the Republicans hadn't been able to do in 12 years--get through the committee a very tough regulatory bill."

Added Frank, "The Senate was dragging its feet, as often happens. And in January of 2008, I asked Secretary Paulson to put in the stimulus bill.

"So the earliest chance I got to put tough regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we did it."

The Huffington Post contrasted Frank's account with reportage by Brit Hume, which the Huffington Post characterized as having been based on "lies" fabricated by Karl Rove.

Said Hume during a report on Fox News Sunday, "...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were very much at the center of this. And it is an odd and, I think, unusual paradox of this whole situation that it was actually Republicans at critical junctures who were pushing for more regulation.

"Normally they push for less," continued Hume. "In this instance, they were pushing for more.

"And it was principally Democrats, led by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and others, some Republicans as well--Bennett of Utah being a conspicuous example--who resisted this, successfully in the end."

The Huffington Post included a quote from Karl Rove that had appeared in the business and Media Institute piece of Sept. 24.

Rove was quoted as saying, "All of this bad stuff on Wall Street happened because people got greedy and the greed started at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

Continued Rove, "And I know this because five years ago, the administration was alerted by the regulator, James Lockhart, that there was insufficient authority and that these institutions--particularly Fannie--were out of control."

As Hume had done, the Business and Media Institute story identified Democrats Frank and Dodd as having acted to obstruct Republican attempts to bring tighter controls on to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Rove was further quoted as saying, "And I got to tell you, for five years, I was part of an effort at the White House to fight this and our biggest opponents on the Hill who blocked this every step of the way were people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank."

Added Rove, "And Fannie and Freddie are the $200 billion contagion at the center of this."

Those quotes, the Huffington Post said, came from comments Rove made on Sept. 17 during an appearance on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes.

The Huffington Post said that Frank had applied a bit of spin when it came to his own version of the story, saying, "Now from 1995 to 2006, when the Republicans controlled Congress, and we were in the minority, we couldn't [pass legislation to bring Fannie Mae under stricter regulatory control].

"Although in 2005, Mike Oxley, of Sarbanes-Oxley fame, a pretty tough guy on regulation, did try to put a bill through to regulate Fannie Mae," continued Frank.

"I worked with him on it. As he told The Financial Times, he thought ideological rigidity in the Bush administration stopped that.

"But the basic point is that the first time I had any real authority over this was January of 2007. And within two months, we had passed the bill that regulated."

The Huffington Post story offered its own account of events.

Said the article, "Here's what actually happened.

"In October 2005 the House, by a vote of 331-90, passed a bill to establish a new federal regulator created for Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Home Loan Banks," the Huffington Post article stated.

"The new regulator was authorized to set capital standards and, if it deemed necessary, require reductions in mortgage portfolios.

"The White House opposed the proposed legislation and instead supported the pending Senate bill. But the Senate bill never came up for a vote, and the legislation died.

"In other words, the Republicans failed to negotiate a deal when they were in charge, and now place the blame on others," said the Huffington Post article.