You’ve heard the critics’ argument before: The CRA hasn’t so much empowered low-income borrowers as it has lowered lending standards, thus forcing banks to make the bad loans that led to the crisis.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the subpanel’s senior Republican, summed up the sentiment nicely Thursday when he claimed the downturn was caused not by predatory lenders preying on people, but by a predatory government preying on banks for political ends.

Never mind that no less an authority than the Federal Reserve’s director of consumer and community affairs said the CRA was “not one of the causes of the current crisis.” Instead, the Fed found that CRA-covered banks were responsible for just 6 percent of the risky, high-cost loans that sparked the financial wildfire.

Franks’ comments weren’t overlooked by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), who used most of his Q&A time debunking the myth, picking from witnesses statistics like those reported by the Fed. Not that he imagined the Republicans were listening.

“When you’re looking for whipping boys,” Delahunt said, “the CRA is just a prime target.”

From their letter, which they sent to the secretary on April 30:

We write seeking access to an important State Department memorandum necessary for the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation of the role Justice Department lawyersin approving interrogation practices of the former Administration. This document may also shed significant light on the role played by State Department experts in the interagency process that led to the implementation of these practices, a matter of substantial interest to the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.

If only I had a gavel.