Lost in the din over the supposed inequity of TARP, TALF, bailouts for AIG and corporate excess in general has been the crash of and possible fraud within the GSEs (Government Sponsored Excesses) that touched off the global financial meltdown--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Freddie on Wednesday reported a breathtaking $50 billion loss for 2008, and it said it needed another $30 billion or so in cash from the government. Freddie's CEO, David Moffett, stepped down last week after only six months on the job, saying he wanted to return to the private sector. Read: He came, he saw, he fled.

Fannie late last month said it lost $60 billion last year and would need $15 billion in cash from Uncle Sam. The U.S. Treasury has said it will commit up to $400 billion to these two black holes, but most economists think that will be nowhere near enough to stabilize them and that the two will become a permanent part of the U.S. Government. In other words, we have created the most expensive low-income housing program in history without need of debate--or legislation.

Predictably, there are few voices on Capitol Hill, and none in the White House, speaking to this. What with corporate jets and bonuses and sales junkets in Vegas providing ample opportunity for unctuous moralizing, why would the polticos want to risk offending the worshippers of these sacred cows? Very lucrative sacred cows, I might add. Guess who's #1 on the list of Senate recipients of Fannie and Freddie campaign contributions as of this past summer? How about Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. And #3? I'll leave a hint: he is President now.

Both Fannie and Freddie were subpoenaed in September by a federal grand jury looking into fraud at both institutions. More recently, one Republican Congressman started asking questions of a loan deal obtained by former Fannie CEO Franklin Raines from good-old Countrywide. Looks like old Franklin might have been one of those "friends of Angelo." Like Dodd was, though he claims not. (But he did refinance the special-rate loans he got from Countrywide, oddly.)

Way, way back in 2005, I wrote a story for Big Builder about the effort at the time to re-regulate Fannie and Freddie. Builders were against it, for the most part. In retrospect, I realize I should have dug a lot deeper. There were those who warned us of the black holes that Fannie and Freddie were, and remain, but I fell prey to the comforting words of the seers of the time that the mortgages Fannie and Freddie held were high-quality and sound. I should have looked into the mortgages that they did not hold but packaged. Those are the mortgages that are in the CDOs that brought the worldwide banking system down. I apologize and admit my mistake.

So, for my penance, I forced myself to fracture the following and reassemble it to fit the politics of this era as opposed to that of Henry VIII, when the original was composed. You may sing along if you wish; the ditty works well in three part, syncopated harmony.

Two large lice, two large lice,

See how they run, see how they run,

They both gave big to the Congressmen

Who gave them free Raines with the signing pen

Have you ever seen such a con-ta-gion

As two large lice?