Congressional Hot-Dogging

Barney Frank is meddling with Fannie and Freddie. Again.

And this time Frank has a sidekick, Rep. Tony Weiner.

Seriously. Frank & Weiner. You can't make this stuff up.

(Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.

In March, Fannie Mae ... said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent, the paper said. Freddie Mac ... is due to implement similar policies next month, the paper said.

In a letter to the CEO's of both companies, Representatives Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner warned that a 70 percent sales threshold "may be too onerous" and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.

I'm not sure of the merits of their argument, but I am 100 percent sure that government meddling into mortgages got us into a huge mess over the last decade, and that Barney Frank was smack dab in the middle of it.