Barney Frank on Regulating Everything, and Why the Public Doesn't Trust Government

Hint: It's not Barney Frank's fault.

By internet standards this is old news -- day before yesterday -- but it might be of interest to those who haven't seen it.

On MSNBC's The ED Show, Ralph Nader holds Barney Frank accountable for his role in bringing about the mortgage crisis. Frank, in his usual toxic style, opens with a mean-spirited insult, noting that "Ralph gets to luxuriate in the purity of his irrelevance," then blames it all on the right wing, and in the process acknowledges the socialist goals of this Congress:

The right wing took control of government and they ruined it. They gave it a bad reputation. Now that we are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area we run into this public opinion that, hey, those are the guys who screwed up Katrina, so the frustration is they're benefiting from their own incompetence.

That's an interesting version of events and I do think he might believe it. Video here, but Mr. Frank is best viewed in very small doses, if at all. He sits back like Jabba the Hutt and exudes his poisonous derision on any who dare not to defer to him. If you have any theories on the source of his supreme confidence I'd be interested in hearing them.

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