HELOC: The New Junk Bond

The local leftyblogs have taken after Minnesota US Senate candidate Mark Kennedy pretty ferociously in the past couple of weeks. Some days it was all Kennedy slime, all the time. The japes ranged anywhere from Kennedy's "sunny rhetoric" on Iraq to his record of voting, like totally, 97% with the President. (A Republican congressman from the most Republican district in the state voting along with a Republican president. That bastard.)

[Channeling Mitch]

But Smartie at Power Liberal - one of the more readable local lefty blogs - took a swipe at Kennedy that is easily my favorite:

Mark Kennedy has a home equity line of credit!!!!!!

We're supposed to trust our finances to a guy who apparently can't live within his means so he goes ahead and takes out what is widely considered a bad financial risk?

!!!!!!!

Perhaps it's a bad financial risk among those that have the financial chops of a typical liberal - at least it's "widely believed" that liberals can't handle money. As for everyone else who wants to remodel their homes, consolidate their debt at a lower (and tax-deductable rate), or reduce the down-payment on their home purchases while avoiding having PMI charges rolled into their monthly mortgage payments, HELOCs make perfect sense.

Unlike Smartie's post.

[/Channeling Mitch]