The standard line of many liberal bloggers on any issue that in any way involves regulation or deregulation is that the evil Bush Administration, in league with free market ideologues, has thwarted very efforts at sensible regulation of large corporations.

In the specific case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, however, it appears that, among others, the Bush Administration, free market think tanks, and Alan Greenspan (and, to be fair, the Clinton Administration) have been calling for years to rein in these institutions, only to be thwarted by Congress, with Democrats especially willing to protect Freddie and Fannie from oversight and reform. See articles from the Times ("attempts to push through stronger oversight were stymied because few politicians, particularly Democrats, wanted to be perceived as hindering the American dream of homeownership for the masses") and the Post.

Kudos to any liberal bloggers who acknowledge that this particular example of corporate malfeasance doesn't follow their script. It does, however, illustrate a potential pitfall of deregulation or privatization or public-private enterprise or whatnot: never privatize the profits while socializing the risks.