The real bombshell of the past 24 hours in housing was the report of the FHFA Inspector General, the second in two weeks damning the conduct of the GSEs In this case, Fannie Mae was found to have known about foreclosure fraud, including serial fabrications of foreclosure documents and robo-signing, as far back as 2003.

He won the praise of a few Senate Republicans. But because they are opposed to the entire concept of the agency, they remained in opposition to Cordray’s confirmation. The 44 Republicans who signed a letter vowing to oppose any nominee for CFPB unless the agency is gutted remain opposed.

[Editor's Note: Watch this hearing live]

I love how Cordray is a “controversial” nominee. Why? Because Republicans don’t think there should be a CFPB? How exactly does that make Cordray controversial?

As Chase Home Lending CEO David Lowman began his testimony at yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, a staged demonstration broke out, as a group stood up in unison, unfurled a banner reading “Dave Lowman Lies” and urged homeowners to “Tell Your Stories.” CNN caught it on video, indicating media is beginning to wakeup to the crisis. Share your stories about the foreclosure crisis while media is still paying attention.

Liveblogging of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on foreclosure fraud continues. Senator Richard Shelby was actually pretty good, but then Sens. Mike Johanns and Bob Bennett went to some length to try to pretend the banksters weren’t doing what they were doing.

This hearing is the latest example of national policymakers getting involved in the foreclosure fraud issue. The Congressional Oversight Panel warning of the enormous risk from the failures of servicers was the first report of its kind at the federal level to take full measure of the situation, and this is the first Congressional hearing. Senators on the Democratic side like Jeff Merkley and Sherrod Brown are sure to press the bank representatives aggressively on why foreclosure mitigation programs have failed, and why they used false documents to evict people from their homes. The ranking member on the Republican side, Richard Shelby, wants to investigate failures at the major loan servicers.

There’s really nothing that can be done to improve the rules of the world’s most deliberative body, Senator Dodd?

Ryan Grim reports that a bipartisan group of Senators is backing an amendment that will restore the Grayson-Paul “audit the fed” language to the Senate Financial Reform bill after Chris Dodd gutted it.

Sen. Chris Dodd appears obsessed with getting a bipartisan financial reform package through the Senate Banking Committee, no matter if it makes a mockery of reform, no matter if it includes virtually nothing to protect consumers or deal with the problem of “too big to fail” financial firms. He’s already seeking to drop the Volcker rule put forward by the White House that would limit proprietary trading from banks.

Current Fed Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke has been recommended for confirmation to a second term by the Senate Banking Committee this morning by a vote of 16-7. In the end, all Democrats on the committee but Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) voted for confirmation.