O'Reilly taunts Frank: 'Come on you coward, say the truth'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday October 3, 2008

Fox pundit Bill O'Reilly is prepared to cast a wide net when it comes to spreading the blame for the current financial crisis, citing ordinary citizens, banks, the federal government, and both political parties. However, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank appears to be a special target of his wrath, and O'Reilly has already called for Frank to step down.

"For the past two years, Frank and his committee oversaw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ... which pretty much are bankrupt," O'Reilly charged on Thursday, before playing a clip of Frank in July calling Fannie and Freddie "fundamentally sound" and "not in danger of going under."

O'Reilly then spoke directly with Frank, in an all-out attack of which Mark Silva at "The Swamp" suggests, "Be sure to strap on your helmet and elbow pads before watching this one."

"Shouldn't everybody in the country be angry with you right now?" O'Reilly began.

"You've misrepresented this consistently," Frank replied, arguing that he only became chairman in January 2007 and put through a very tough regulatory bill just a few months later.

Conservative writer Nancy Morgan, in a piece titled "Barney Frank Gets A Spanking," suggests that up to this point "Barney Frank, consummate politician that he is, handled himself quite well, casting himself as having fought for greater regulation and reform of Fannie Mae. Rep. Frank was genuinely perplexed that Americans weren’t judging him on his good intentions instead of the disastrous results of his actions, or lack of actions."

However, during the rest of the segment, O'Reilly appeared determined to talk over Frank and shout him down, preventing any clear take on whether -- or to what degree -- Frank is actually responsible for the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or whether O'Reilly was merely looking for a scapegoat to blame for the lost millions of investors.

"You still went out in July and said everything was great," O'Reilly insisted to Frank, "and off that a lot of people bought stock and lost everything they had."

"Oh, no..." Frank began.

"Oh, yes. Oh, yes!" yelled O'Reilly. "Don't give me any of that, we just heard the words!"

"You didn't listen to it," Frank answered somewhat weakly. "I said it wasn't a good investment."

"Stop the BS here! Stop the crap!" O'Reilly yelled angrily, repeatedly preventing Frank from talking. "From August '07 to August '08, under your tutelage, this industry declined 90%. ... People lost millions of dollars, it wasn't your fault Come on you coward, say the truth!"

"What do you mean, 'coward?'" Frank replied. "Here's the problem with going on your show. You start ranting, and the only way to respond is almost to look as boorish as you."

"You go in and make every excuse in the world," responded O'Reilly, leaning intimidatingly towards the camera, "blame everybody else in the world, and then call me 'boorish.'"

"I'm not going to be bullied by your ranting," Frank retorted.

"Cox is man enough to say he screwed up -- you're not," O'Reilly taunted.

"This is why your stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion," replied Frank. "This 'maniliness' stuff is very unbecoming. ... You think toughness is yelling and ranting and trying to bully us. It's not going to work with me. ... You don't listen at all -- or maybe you listen and you're too dumb to understand"

"And your the brilliant guy who presided over the biggest collapse in federal history," O'Reilly said sarcastically, cutting Frank off before he could reply further.

This video is from Fox's O'Reilly Factor, broadcast October 2, 2008.


http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bill_OReilly_shouts_down_Barney_Frank_1003.html

So when Frank (D-MA) says something, with caveats, that might help calm markets and a financial institution still fails, he gets crucified by a moronic, right-wing loudmouth, yet when Chuck Schumer (D-NY) raised concerns about IndyMac Bank, there was a run and the bank became insolvent. In the opinion of most, it was just a matter of time for IndyMac, but partisans on the right hammered Schumer like it was his fault.

Orally is a blowhard, but it's interesting he didn't lay a glove on Obama in his recent interview. In fact he came away impressed. Was Bill-O just off his game that night, or was Obama skilled enough to tame the beast? Without a teleprompter no less...

Well, Bill-O is beholden to Globalists, just like Obama is, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes ring a bell?

For the first time in many, many years, I can say I agreed with some of what O'Reilly had to say.


"And your the brilliant guy who presided over the biggest collapse in federal history," O'Reilly said sarcastically,

"This is why your stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion," replied Frank. "This 'maniliness' stuff is very unbecoming. ... You think toughness is yelling and ranting and trying to bully us. It's not going to work with me. ... You don't listen at all -- or maybe you listen and you're too dumb to understand"


now that is funny.

from bottom to top that is funny.