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Banking Committee Democrats Threaten Private Businessman
...The day after the Times article ran, Frey received a threatening letter signed by six Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee. The letter reads:

Dear Mr. Frey:

We were outraged to read in today’s New york Times that you are actively opposing our efforts to achieve a diminution in foreclosures by voluntary efforts. Your decision is a serious threat to our efforts to respond to the current economic crisis, and we strongly urge you to reverse it. Given the importance of this to the economy and to what it means for future regulatory efforts, we have set a hearing for November 12, and we invite you to now testify. We believe it is essential for our policymaking function for you to appear at such a hearing, and if this can not be arranged on a vountary basis, then we will purse further steps.

For the hedge fund industry, which has flourished for much of the past decade, to take steps so actively in opposition to what is currently in the national economic interest is deeply troubling and will clearly have serious implications for the rules by which we operate in the future if this posture of obstruction of our efforts is maintained.

We very much hope you will be able to tell us very soon that you have reversed your position of trying to obstruct the operation of the bill that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by the President this summer, and we hope you will also affirm your presence at the hearing on November 12.

The letter is signed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Penn.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.)....