Newly obtained documents suggest that Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) personally called former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson regarding a cash infusion from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for the Boston-based OneUnited Bank, according to the non-partisan, public-interest group Judicial Watch.

On November 25, 2008, following Frank’s intervention, the Treasury Department awarded close to $12.5 million in bailout funds to OneUnited, which is located in Frank’s district. According to the Wall Street Journal, Frank publicly admitted he spoke to a “federal regulator” regarding OneUnited, but “he didn’t remember which federal regulator he spoke with.”

The documents, obtained by Judicial Watch in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against Treasury, include correspondence between Frank and Treasury as well as internal Treasury emails referencing attempts by Frank and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), whose husband, Sidney Williams, served on the OneUnited Board of Directors, to intervene on behalf of the Massachusetts Bank. Williams resigned shortly after Waters approached federal regulators regarding the OneUnited TARP grant.

“It’s almost unbelievable that Rep. Frank — up to his neck in the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac debacle — continues to escape any investigation congress or the federal government or even the news media,” said political strategist Mike Baker.

“I stress the words almost unbelievable since the Democrats appear to be insulated from any meaningful scrutiny,” added Baker.

An October 17, 2008, email from former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Banking and Finance King Mueller to former Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari and other Treasury officials references the contact between Frank and Paulson:

“Just spoke w/ Jim [Segel] in BF’s [Barney Frank’s] office. This is about One United Bank (a minority owned bank in BF’s district). Maxine Waters is interested in the bank as well, Treas[ury] and others met w/ them (minority bankers assoc) last month per the Water’s request. They were a big holder in f/f preferred. BF is interested and may call HMP [Henry Paulson] again about this. FDIC is their primary federal regulator.”[Emphasis added.]

An October 16, 2008, email from Kashkari to former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Appropriations and Management Peter Dugas: “Peter, Jim Siegel [sic] from Frank’s office called a few times-can one of you follow-up with him?” Segel serves as Frank’s Chief Counsel. Another email suggests that Frank’s congressional staff had “concerns” about Frank’s contacts with Treasury becoming public. Paulson’s October 2008 calendar, which has been released separately, details calls from Frank on October 2, 3, 7, 9, 13, and 17.

With respect to Rep. Waters, the documents include a January 13, 2009, email from Brooklyn McLaughlin, Treasury’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, expressing surprise at Waters’ apparent conflict of interest: “Further to email below, WSJ [Wall Street Journal] tells me:…Apparently this bank is the only one that has gotten money through section 103-6 of the EESA law. And Maxine Waters’ husband is on the board of the bank. ??????”

“This is exactly the kind of corrupt deal-making we can expect when the federal government decides to throw massive amounts of taxpayer dollars at private institutions,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And it appears Barney Frank has been dishonest regarding his intervention on behalf of OneUnited. Frank stated publicly he could not remember the name of the bureaucrat he contacted about OneUnited, and now we learn this nameless bureaucrat was almost certainly none other than the Secretary of the Treasury. Who is Frank kidding? This looks like another Keating Five-type scandal. This still-burgeoning scandal calls into question whether Rep. Frank should remain head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. No wonder the Obama Treasury Department stonewalled the release of these documents.”

Without the intervention of Frank and Waters, OneUnited would seem an unlikely recipient of TARP funds. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department indicated it would only provide funds to healthy banks in order to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in massive financial turmoil, but it was also “under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.” The bank continues to flounder and is one of the few financial institutions to have not paid dividends to the federal government in exchange for the TARP cash infusion.

Finally, one of the more prominent Democrats hosts a town hall meeting.  The prominent Democrat in question? None other than that Massachusetts blowhard (no wisecracks!) Barney Frank.

Let’s set the scene here.  The event took place in Dartmouth, and the subject matter was of course the health care reform bill.  And guess what, folks?  Fireworks did fly. Not that a town hall meeting which involved Frank was going to be this genteel affair of all of his closest….ummm…friends.

And as you would have expected, in light of the unhappiness of the vast majority of citizens in reference to the proposed health care bill, Frank couldn’t take the heat.  As is Franks’ tendency, he snapped at his constituents.  He lashed out at one in particular who held a poster of Obama with a Hitler mustache.  The lady in question asked why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy. Frank’s witty reply?

 ”On what planet do you spend most of your time?”

Oh, and this one:

“Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.”

He continued by saying that her ability to deface a picture of a president and express her views “is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.”

What Frank was trying to accomplish, the theatrics aside, was to convince the gathering at the meeting that the average taxpayer would not be hurt by health care bills currently sitting in Congress. 

What is so funny about this meeting is that Frank really didn’t come armed with any facts.  Just a lockstep Obamacare message whcih, as most of you alreadfy know, is basically more of the same rhetoric that the president is famous for. And I think it is highly unlikely that Frank read any parts of the 1,018 page bill.

Oh, let’s not forget the people outside the town hall meeting who passed out pamphlets and holding posters criticizing Obamacare, with some of the posters saying, “It’s the economy stupid, stop the spending” and “Healthcare reform yes, government takeover no. Tort Reform Now”.

Just when you would have thought that you heard the last regarding the banking industry, Massachusetts blowhard – no wise cracks  LOL – Barney Frank had to bring them back from the dead.

If I remember correctly, there was resolution regarding lenders and homeowners who had difficulties in keeping their mortgages current.  For whatever reason, Frank has decided to put the fear of Congress into the banks, threatening the banks with the revival of legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to write down a person’s monthly mortgage payment if the number of loan modifications remained low.  Frank went even further.

Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also said that his committee would not consider any further legislation to help banks lend unless – according to Frank – there’s a significant increase in mortgage modifications.

All of this in the wake of a deal struck between Timothy “Turbotax” Geithner and two dozen mortgage companies; the agreement calls for a goal of adjusting approximately 500,000 loans by November 1.  This seems to leave a lot of uncertainty in the grand scheme of things.

You absolutely have to consider that of those targetd 500,000 mortgage holders, how many of them have no business getting modifications on their mortgages?  I am willing to bet you that there’s a good percentage of them who will eventually default, which is never a good sign.

I also wonder as to why Barney Frank is all of a sudden deciding to invoke this crap on these mortgage companies, banks and other lenders.  They’re trying to reverse what Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae started – which is that they made some pretty questionable loans, at the behest of Congress.  And Frank is trying to mess things up.  By the way, this is the same lawmaker who initiated the Freddie and Fannie mess.

To go a step further, it is hardly fair to these institutions to make these modifications, knowing that the mortgage holders more than likely will file for bankruptcy.  Which automatically is a loss leader for the lenders and mortgage companies not to mention that the value of the homes automatically decrease, as a result.

I think that it is in the best interest of Frank to leave these mortgage companies and other institutions alone and let them do their job.  They cannot be effective with his interference in their business.  If there’s at least one thing to be learned by Frank’s meddling, that is this: The Federal government has absolutely no business running anything that’s within the private sector.  As it were, they do a pretty shoddy job running the government; Frank’s threats of action just simply magnify everything that is wrong with our government.

Barney, all that we ask you to do is quit your annoying meddling and leave the mortgage companies, banks and other lenders alone.  But knowing you, that perhaps is asking entirely too much.

The last time I checked, the free market system was designed to ensure healthy competition, regardless of the industry.  The good companies survive and thrive, while the not so good ones go by the wayside.  It is how capitalism has been for time immemorial.  Yet there is one industry that just doesn’t get it as they opt to go the route of GM, Chrysler and several financial institutions.  What is that industry, you’re wondering?  Coincidentally or not, it is the broadcasting industry; more specifically, the minority broadcasting industry.

What this group has done is asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for financial assistance – in other words, a bailout, of sorts.  According to the letter drafted by the group in question,

“Minority-owned broadcasters are close to becoming an extinct species. Even in better economic times, minority broadcasters have historically had difficulties accessing the capital markets. Unlike the auto business, broadcasting has been healthy for many years.”

Not surprisingly, this letter was a supplement to a proposal sent in May to Geithner by a group of influential members of the House – including Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), Barney Frank (D-MA), Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY).

At a hearing last week, the head of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters James Winston told lawmakers that advertisers have severely cut investments (in other words reduced their ad budgets) in minority audiences at the same time that minority broadcasters are having a hard time negotiating loan terms with banks.  

Regardless of the percentage of broadcast entities owned by minorities (7.7% of radio and 3.2% of TV), they are sufering what a lot of other industries are sufffering – a drop in revenue due to a sluggish economy.  they should under no circumstances be granted special privileges just because they are having a low period in keeping revenues up.  They are no better than GM, Chrysler or Wall Street; as a matter of fact, they should do like any good business would do in these difficult times – make necessary cuts that will ensure their long-term survival.

And I hope like hell that this measure put out there by this group and any correspondence sent to the House does not go any further than it already has.  Giving preferential treatment to thiws group would set a bad precedence and would basically allow other industries to have their hand out.

Let’s face it. The compensation plan that the Obama administration is putting together is overreaching as the ultimate plan is for the Federal government to dictate compensation for executives in the private sector. And as haas been the case lately, Barney Frank has been the face for this convoluted policy. Let’s hear it in his words. It ain’t pretty, folks. Trust me.

Leave it to Barney Frank to put his foot in his mouth. Bravo, CNBC!!

Any kid who questions anything that Barney Frank says or does – and also calls out Frank – gets my respect. The kid in question? A Harvard student, of all people. Let’s see why he “punked” Frank.