Talk about ironies. The housing boom-and-bust that brought the 2008-09 recession has prompted cries to punish the guilty, more often from the left wing than from the right. Enter the Securities and Exchange Commission, chaired by the Obama-appointed Mary Schapiro. On Dec. 16, the SEC announced civil indictments against six former executives of two corporations cited mainly by Republicans as the mortgage villains—government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Without necessarily meaning to do so, the SEC has made an authoritative case that the two GSEs did in fact play a key role in financing the high-risk mortgages that fueled the housing bubble.