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Democrats are giving Republicans the hearing they’ve been demanding to dig into the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it won’t happen until after the election. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) Monday announced that he will hold a hearing into the collapse of the mortgage giants on Nov. 20, and plans to call several of the firms’ ex-CEOs, including Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines. Republicans view the two companies as Democrats’ political Achilles heel amid a financial meltdown that has led to calls for more regulation of the financial sector. The GOP dubbed the companies the “toxic twins” and launched a campaign to discredit Waxman’s series of investigative hearings into corporate misdeeds by complaining he was ignoring “Fannie and Freddie.”
At the beginning of his second hearing, into the American International Group (AIG) insurance company, Waxman announced he would hold a hearing on the mortgage giants. Republicans immediately pressed him for a date. “It seems highly suspicious that Chairman Waxman has delayed this particular hearing - which doubtless will focus on the desperate need for reform and Fannie and Freddy, and the equally desperate efforts by Democratic leaders to block those reforms,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). The Center for Responsive Politics found that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) the Democratic presidential nominee, has received more money since 1989 from Fannie Mae than any lawmaker except for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). “We’re sort of splashing around in the wading pool when we should be looking into the cesspool,” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said as the Waxman hearings began. Waxman also said he’d requested documents and information from the companies.
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