Bill Roper's Journal

If you believe that this is strictly a Republican mess, then you've failed to look into any of the history of the problem. If Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- under prodding from Democrats such as Barney Frank -- had not been willing to buy the subprime mortgages from their originators, there would have been many fewer subprime mortgages out there. That's one of the reasons, for instance, that jumbo mortgages are expensive -- because Freddie and Fannie won't buy them.

There's plenty of blame to go around. To their credit, the Bush Administration wanted improved oversight of Freddie and Fannie back in 2003, but couldn't get it through Congress.