During one House Financial Services Committee hearing last month, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) launched into an antagonistically absurd string of questions at eight top bank CEOs. Those queries included one about ominous-sounding offshore "loss-mitigation departments" at Bank of America, commonplace interest rate hikes on credit-cards and a characterization of the CEOs as "captains of the universe."

BofA CEO Ken Lewis answered one query concerning mysterious fees that bankers were supposedly paid to accept TARP funds with a perplexed look and bemused response: "I don't know what you're talking about."

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He's not the only one.

Rep. Waters: Get a grip, and a clue. For someone who has been on the committee for 18 years to launch into a juvenile, nonsensical diatribe adds insult to injury for the taxpayers whose economy you've helped destroy.

There are other fees that Waters and her counterparts might want to take a closer look at, though.

Over the past two election cycles—which included the height and the downfall of the housing market, financial market and the economy—members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee received over $408 million in campaign donations from financial, insurance and real-estate firms, according to OpenSecrets.org. That figure represents nearly 30% of contributions from any one sector, with legal contributions a distant second at $40.7 million, or 10%.

One can blame the portion of homeowners who tried to turn shelter into profit -- or the carrots they were offered by lenders who recklessly doled out home loans; Wall Street firms that booked profits on securitizing and trading that mortgage paper; ratings agencies who profited from rubber-stamping that paper, ignoring telltale signs that something was amiss while raking in money from financial firms; and the Fed, which greased the wheels of an overleveraged economic time-bomb with low interest rates.

But, the bottom line is, who was supposed to be batting down those carrots with a giant stick? Lawmakers and their enforcement agencies. And who was funding the lawmakers? The very firms they should have been batting down.

Perhaps they were too busy investigating Ponzi schemes in the Caribbean. Don't worry, the margaritas are on the House.

Robert Holmes blames irresponsible home buyers tomorrow.