Here is 2003 video testimony from the current chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, on the solvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank is quick to point out that he believes, despite increasing evidence to the contrary, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "fundamentally sound, financially." Although the Believability Meter shows Frank to be sincere, the subsequent collapse of the two mortgage giants showed him to be sincerely dead wrong.

But perhaps the most surreal part of this video clip is the Believability Meter's reaction when Frank brazenly claims that, even if there were a problem, "the federal government doesn't bail [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] out." Except, of course, until the federal government did exactly that late last year.

The Believability Meter knew all along that Barney Frank was playing with a stacked deck. Now, he has successfully used the political leverage of "affordable housing" to shift blame for the crisis from himself to greedy bankers on Wall Street. Do you think politicians like Barney Frank are the exception or the rule on Capitol Hill?