On Economy, Unlikely Allies Forge Winning Strategy

[cal04]

Housing Bill to Test Treasury Chief, Democrat's Ties
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/04/AR2008050402183.html?hpid=topnews

One is a free-market Republican from Wall Street with roots in the rural Midwest and a passion for bird-watching. The other is a rumpled, union-hall Democrat from Bayonne, N.J., who once famously described himself as "a left-handed, gay Jew."

About the only thing Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank have in common is a Harvard degree. Yet the two have forged a remarkably productive relationship in the waning days of the Bush administration, steering complicated bills to overhaul two federal agencies through the Democratic House and shaping Washington's response to the nation's credit crisis.

Now that relationship is about to be tested. Frank, along with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), is championing Washington's most aggressive response to the rising tide of foreclosures that has dragged down the nation's economy -- a $300 billion plan to help thousands of distressed homeowners. The White House has declared its opposition to the bill. But Frank plans to tie it to some of the administration's top housing priorities in hope that Paulson will help him push the package across the president's desk.

(snip)
In an interview, Paulson refused to discuss Frank's bill beyond stating the administration's view that it is "a bit too prescriptive and goes too far in shifting some of the risk" of bad home loans from lenders to taxpayers. But he commended Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, as a market-savvy pragmatist who consistently "looks for areas of agreement because he wants to get things done."

[notesdev]

1. on Ivy League degrees

>> About the only thing Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank have in common is a Harvard degree.

Interestingly enough, from the President on down, and all through Congress and the banks, there are Ivy degrees everywhere. The best and the brightest, they are supposed to be. Yet, left to their own devices, they've managed to bring the nation to the brink of destruction.

Those Ivy schools ought to be taking a good, long, hard look at themselves, and ask themselves what kind of graduates they are producing, whether they be benefits to society or merely educated menaces.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. clever ole Barney

he has said he is going to push for legalization of marijuana, says he thinks "I can get away with it" in the current political climate.
I like him...lisp and all.