The Democrats' preferred scapegoat is Phil Gramm, an economist, former senator, and recently removed McCain economic advisor. (Example here.) On this way of telling the story, Gramm and his evil friends (boo! hiss!) deregulated the banking industry, which gave greedy banks the go-ahead to offer all sorts of dubious loans. If the loans were repaid, then great: they'd make a profit; if not, then ultimately the government (read: taxpayers) would foot the bill. Win-win.
That's an easy story to tell, and a convenient one in election season. There may even be something to it, but the overall story is far more complicated. This Wall Street Journal article lists a number of culprits, including the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, the screwups at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. And as Rich Lowry notes in a TownHall.com article, the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley bank deregulation bill received 90 votes in the Senate (out of 100 possible; in other words, it received very strong bipartisan support), including that of Joe Biden (Barack Obama's running mate), and was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.
The upshot, then, is that the attack on Gramm - which is used as an attack on McCain - is essentially bogus. If Gramm is to blame for his 1999 bill, then so are the Democrats. And as noted above, there are other culprits behind the mortgage crisis, too. If the goal is to simply score cheap political points, then we should note that Barack Obama was the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's largesse - but that's probably just as unfair. (The jury is instructed to disregard that last statement.)
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