All good points, the banks have been using off balance sheet transactions to offload the risk. We did create a place where toxic mortgage debt could be taken off the books, Fannie and Freddie were just the biggest, and most visible.

When you say government, however, you assume there is some sort of consensus about how this should be done, and I'm not sure there is, (I'm absolutely sure there should not be, but the Democrats signed the bill in July and it is full of pork, and it is a blank check, unless they say otherwise..)

It's not really whether this is the fight the Democrats wanted, it may be the only one they have left, as the polls suggest Obama is now trailing McCain/Palin, and Obama has made some noises which suggest he doesn't agree with the scope of the project.

The Bushies ahvbe succeeded in drowing government in a bathtub, haven't they, first by building a bigger tub. I'm not sure this is such a done deal, any more than the Bear deal was done, just because they said it was.

I'm not suggesting anyone buy Fannie shares at firesale prices, but some investors will.

The 5 or 7 trillion in mortgages represents a rather large bit of very desireable capital. Step one, screw the shareholders and cut them out of the deal. Step two, use taxpayer money to clean up the balance sheets. Step three, sell these assets in an IPO, at discounted prices to the investment banks.

Consumers get their $600 rebates, now Wall Street gets their 6 trillion dollar handout. It's only fair.

You know those ill-advised throws off the backfoot into triple coverage?

So Kornheiser has a career in politics, et tu Olberman?

Here's an idea, King, let's speculate on teams who will never play this well again the rest of the year.

Like the Bears.

Boy was I wrong about the Vikings, I thought they would come out with some attitude, and instead they were hugging their opponents after the game. They couldn't run the ball, and they were dismal on special teams. They are usually the team scoring on kickoff returns.

I'm glad ESPN improved the coverage but that game was a B movie at a Saturday matinee, Creature of the Black Lagoon Meets the Mummy, with Abbott and Costello.

Hey golf has its own channel? Can football be far behind?

How in the world could these bailouts ever be handled fairly, and that implies one auto company will file suit against the government, alleging favorable treatment for the other.

All of which leads to a discussion of where these tax revenues are coming from? To say specifically that you expect the taxpayers to backstop these things implies just that, and does not allow that deficit spending be allowed.

There's a point to be made here that either side might take, simply that you must actually pay for these things with revenues.

Elfman is right up to a point. Democrats, Franks and Waters championed Fannie as the lender of last resort for low income borrowers. The need for such a backstop became less evident when the Fed lowered interest rates. The private lenders found they could write liar loans, ARMS, and everything exotic, and Fannie would be their toxic waste dump. It was really too late for the Democrats to do anything without jepordizing the portfolio of existing loans.

The GSE's should have been restricted from taking any new paper, until they provided an audit. In point of fact they were never Government Sponsored Enterprises, and Greenspan said so. This sad tale isn't much different than the Iraq war funding circus. The Democrats accepted a gentlemen's agreement on the matter, and that agreement was never honored, it was never meant to be honored, and since most of these people are lawyers they have no excuse.

Would the whole mess have been worse? No, if you accept the reality that the government never had Fannie and Freddie's back. The Republican bamboozle claims another victim, when will these people ever learn?

Additionally I am willing to bet that an amount equal to about one third of the current budget deficit is being held in offshore banks in the Bahamas, the greatest rippoff of the American taxpayer, through the MIC, black and no-bid contracts, in history.

Like Iran Contra, when the Savings and Loan scandal was a conduit for the illegal funding of the rebels, the destruction of the home mortgage business has put millions of taxpayer dollars into offashore banks, and by extension Republican hands. The Iran Contra investigation was the defining moment, the moment in failure, when the Republican party learned they could steal money from US taxpayers, with no repercussions, and conduct secret wars, and run political slush funds.

The party of Nixon has always sought it moment of retribution, and with each iteration they come a bit closer.

Who the hell do you think you're fooling, you just got several pages to pump up the former administation in their war on terror, and demand the next administation do more? Screw you pal, I've read the playbook. Well suppose that Bush comes up with Bin Laden, boy howdy, you have the ticket. Not one other issue to explain why you would vote Democrat, you're just thinking about. Get off my sidewalk jerk.