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The argument is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lobbied strongly for deregulation that allowed them to get into the mess they're in and against regulation that would have reined them in.
Now, in the particular case of these two companies, since they were government franchised entities it was generally Democrats would supported their requests and Republicans who wished to rein them in. So I am not surprised to see this information.
Both parties were pretty complicit in the legislative changes over the last 15 years that contributed to our current mess -- though in this case Obama's relative lack of experience may help him since almost everything substantive that lead to our current financial sector crisis was done before he had a change to contribute one way or another.
Though by no means is our elected federal government solely to blame; the Fed gets its share for a policy that made credit incredibly cheap and then began raising rates just in time for option resets and of course the financial institutions themselves get the lion's share of blame for while deregulation may have made it possible, these companies looked common sense in the eye and said "**** that."
And just a side, note. I work for one of those "**** that" companies (though not in a role that in any way contributed) and there is a not-insignicant chance that the hens are coming to roost for us very soon.
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