Length: 03:47
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefited from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Franks efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s."Its absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least whats not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because hes gay. Its the quintessential double standard."So did Franks partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agencys push to relax lending restrictions.Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannies assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.A top GOP House aide agreed."Cmon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Franks political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxleys wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCains wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nations housing and banking laws."