Poking fun at politicians is, well, fun. And why shouldn’t it be? Many elected officials cling to their ideological biases – shamefully blinding themselves to the real-world and anything that may disprove their theories or derail their agendas. It seems it’s been a long time – far too long – since we’ve heard “I’m wrong” come from the lips of a politician. Do these people not set themselves up for our barbs and jabs?

It’s unfair to generalize of course. Some elected officials are open-minded. Some genuinely work for the best interests of the public. Some are quick to say “my bad.” We can add to this list (maybe) longtime ‘Beltway Insider’ Barney Frank – Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

For eons Frank was a staunch supporter of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the colossal government housing agencies that played an enormous role in sinking the American economy – but in a late July CNBC interview he seemed ready to wave goodbye.

“I hope by next year we’ll have abolished Fannie and Freddie. It was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford and couldn’t really handle once they had it.” When asked about merging Fannie and Freddie into the FHA and the establishment of a separate low-income program that would remove government from subsidizing middle-income households Frank commented, “…that, I think, is exactly what we should be doing.” Frank added that any federal housing guarantees should be transparently priced and reflected in the Federal budget.

What’s behind Congressman Frank’s ideological shift? Political watchers would be quick to point out the bailout of Fannie and Freddie is highly unpopular with voters. The tab is already north of $150 billion and estimates by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office have this figure rising to $400 billion before all is said and done. Would it not garner support from voters ahead of the mid-term elections to kick an already unpopular Fannie and Freddie while they’re down?

Fannie and Freddie quite simply are an utter mess and a political albatross. Recently they borrowed $1.5 billion FROM Treasury so they could afford to pay TO Treasury the $1.8 billion in dividends owed as part of the conservatorship deal reached in 2008. On top of that President Obama approved $42 million of bonuses for the top twelve execs that included $6 million for each of the CEOs. What the ____?!

Clearly there’s a political motivation for Congressman Frank’s new view. We voters aren’t dopes (well, at least not in this case). We aren’t going to stand for this when we go to the polls in November. Incumbents be damned!

But it’s important to be fair. Congressman Frank is an awfully smart man. He sees more than the political angle. He knows the system of Federal affordable-housing mandates central to the real estate collapse is a bad idea. He knows the Fannie and Freddie mandates and resulting bad decisions by private lenders resulting from government’s overreach lead the economy to the brink of catastrophe.

Hopefully the Federal mortgage mess is ending. We’ll have to wait and see if Fannie and Freddie are abolished. We don’t yet know if HUD-implemented Congressional affordable-housing mandates will be repealed. It’s unclear whether federally guaranteed housing insurance reform will require larger down payments, stricter underwriting standards and greater reliance on a private, market-based approach.

One thing that is clear and the broadest of lessons to be learned by Congressman Frank’s change of heart is that government interference in market-based systems does more harm than good. It simply doesn’t work. Are you listening Democratic Party? Mid-term elections are fast approaching. Tick tock. Tick tock.