This time on the effect that zero down, negative equity and other risky mortgages might have if allowed to continue:

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

They soft pedaled Saudi involvement in terrorism both before and after 911 because the House of Saud is an FOB (Friend of Bush), and they soft pedaled sleazy mortgage agents because they gave money to Republithugs.

That’s what it’s all about for them.