While the Hagan campaign criticizes Elizabeth Dole for being “unwilling to take the lead in introducing the bills she refers to regarding the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” AEI’s Peter Wallison and Charles Calomiris give Dole credit for at least making an attempt at reform, unlike other senators who remained silent:
In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it. Mr. McCain endorsed the legislation in a speech on the Senate floor. Mr. Obama, like all other Democrats, remained silent.
Again, this is what I don’t get about those who smear McCain. Agree or disagree, he’s consistently put his neck out politically in attempts at reform, while Obama has done……what? I’m constantly amazed when Obama supporters —whether on TV or right here in my neighborhood — are asked point-blank exactly what he’s done, they can’t come up with anything.
