Tonight Fox News ran a special report show titled: Saving Our Economy: What'$ Next?  They will be rebroadcasting this program Sunday @10pm.  It's must see TV.   Every voting citizen has a duty to view this program, and understand the far reaching implications of what is being reported here.  The program chronicles the milestone events from the Carter Administration through the current Administration that all contributed to the giant mortgage implosion mess.  It's a well done piece that collects the threads of this disaster and weaves an ugly tapestry of spectacular Government mismanagement.

We do have one minor gripe that this program doesn't say much about the SEC's contribution to this mess.  A recent article in the New York Times delves in depth into a key 2004 event that allowed investment banks to gobble up great chunks of poisonous Fannie Mae loans.  While it's true that the SEC is quasi-independent, nonetheless, they loosened critical capital requirements for investment banks under the Bush Administration's watch.  It's a good illustration that everybody's hands are dirty on this one.  No one escapes.  (Credit to journalist Gary Weiss' blog for bringing the Times article to our attention.  Mr. Weiss is a long-time critic of the SEC).

As we have suggested here in our "A Historic Catastrophe" post, a lion's share of the blame falls squarely at the feet of the social engineers within the Democratic Party.  To be sure, the Republicans are not blameless, as we illustrated above.  While Bush Administration officials were warning of dangers growing within Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae,  these efforts were woefully inadequate relative to the growing peril.  And as we have stated earlier, the Bush Administration's handling of resulting crisis has been nothing less than deplorable.  Really awful.  While some conservative law makers sounded warnings - including John McCain - all failed to plug the liberal orchestrated regulatory gap, and lack of substantive oversight.  Yes it's true that the Republicans introduced and voted for measures putting limits and controls on what Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were doing, and yes it's true that Democrats blocked those measures.  These votes were usually along party lines.  The Republicans didn't do enough, and the Democrats did what they do best - set America up for failure.  And that is precisely what happened here:  The Party of Failure succeeded. 

It is interesting that three names are consistently surfacing over and over when it comes to the central issue of this calamity: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  Those names are Senator Christopher Dodd, Congressman Barney Franks, and Party of Failure poster boy himself - Senator Charles Schumer.  In a news article from the Hartford Courant titled: "Dodd Had Central Role in Crafting Bailout Bill" praise is lavished on Dodd by his colleagues, including Barack Obama, for helping lead the way on 700 billion rescue bill for a problem whose creation Dodd appears to have contributed substantially.  It strikes us as praising the arsonist for summoning the fire department.  Towards the end of the Courant article,  Senator Dodd is quoted from his senate floor speech as saying the following: 

"Our economy is on a precipice," he said, "and that is not exaggeration. We must do what we can to move it back from that brink."

A precipice that he and is liberal cronies helped create in very large part.