Student Who Confronted Barney Frank Entering Political Fray

A quick trip around Hannity's America...

He's Back!

Remember the Harvard Law student who called Barney Frank on the carpet for his failure to take responsibility for the country's financial meltdown?

They had this exchange back in April:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEL POLLAK, FORMER HARVARD LAW STUDENT, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: In your account of how the subprime mortgage crisis came about, you mentioned the Reagan administration, the Bush administration, the Republicans in Congress, conservatives, but it happened on your watch.

What I would like to know is if you acknowledge any responsibility at all for what's happened?

BARNEY FRANK, D-MASS.: Well, this is the right-wing approach. No, excuse me.

POLLAK: I'm still waiting for a very simple answer.

FRANK: And I'm waiting for you to tell me what you think I should have done. I didn't say —

POLLAK: No, no. You're a public representative. I'm a student. I'm asking you —

FRANK: Which allows you to say things that you don't back up. First of all, you are a student. Students are entitled to full constitutional freedom of speech on the First Amendment. You made an accusation that is wholly inaccurate.

POLLAK: I didn't accuse you of anything. I'm asking how much responsibility, if any.

FRANK: Sure.

POLLAK: You can say none, that's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Folks were so impressed by law school graduate Joel Pollak's composure during that exchange that they called on him to run for office. And now it's official: Mr. Pollak has entered the political fray, taking on Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky in the 2010 congressional race. He says it was what he saw at the town halls this summer that persuaded him to run.

We wish Mr. Pollak the best of luck and hope he continues to fearlessly tackle those Democrats.

Maturity on Display

The Countrywide Mortgage scandal continues to develop. Ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa was set to call for a vote on whether to subpoena documents related to the Friends of Angelo sweetheart mortgage deals, so Democrats took matters into their own hands: They boycotted the vote like mature adults.

Congressman Issa's office caught the entire thing on tape as Democrats snuck out the back exit! I guess that's what the Democrats meant by taking responsibility and cleaning up Washington. How impressive.

Stimulus Stinker

Our Waste 101 update comes to you from the White House itself. According to President Obama's recovery office, the stimulus directly created a total of 30,383 jobs. But if you take a closer look at how much stimulus money has actually been spent, you may not be so impressed with those results.

According to ABC News, the federal government awarded $2.2 billion to contractors for the purpose of creating jobs. That means each one of those 30,000 jobs cost you the taxpayer upwards of $72,000 — $72,000 each!

But the White House says they don't buy ABC's math, claiming the jobs created number is likely to grow as they continue to assess this with the new data.

With unemployment now hovering just under 10 percent, I don't think I'd be taking a victory lap just yet.

Back From the Dead

Here on this show, we have brought to your attention some of the more controversial appointments made by the Obama administration. But even President Obama hasn't made this mistake. Well, at least not yet.

Red-faced Democratic Party officials in Mobile, Alabama, are explaining this week why they appointed a deceased man to a newly formed panel. Reynolds Smith, Jr., a long-time Democrat, was tapped to serve on one of the party's panels to help reform an executive committee.

But the only problem is, Mr. Smith passed away back in November.

I guess they're using the same vetters as President Obama.

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