White House rips New York Times story

The White House on Sunday slammed a story published on
the front page of the New York Times
that accused the Bush administration of stoking a “mortgage bonfire.”

“Most people can accept that a news story recounting recent
events will be reliant on ‘20-20 hindsight’,” White House Press Secretary Dana
Perino said in a lengthy statement. “Today’s front-page New York Times story relies on hindsight with blinders on and one
eye closed.”

{mosads}Perino argued that the newspaper’s “reporting” for the
article “amounted to finding selected quotes to support a story the reporters
fully intended to write from the onset, while disregarding anything that didn’t
fit their point of view.”

Perino especially criticizes that the reporters were
unfamiliar with President Bush’s primetime address on the causes of the
financial crisis.

“That the NYT ignored such an important economic speech
to the American people and the complex causes of the crises is gross negligence,”
Perino stated.

She added that, while ripping the White House in the
article, the story “gives kid glove treatment to Congress.”

“While the Administration was pushing for more
transparent lending rules and strengthening oversight and supervision of Fannie
and Freddie, Congress for years blocked attempts at stronger regulation and
blocked reform of the Federal Housing Administration,” she said. “Democratic
leaders brazenly encouraged Fannie and Freddie to loosen lending standards and
instead encouraged the housing GSEs to play a larger and larger role in the
housing market — even while explicitly acknowledging the rising risks.”