Fannie and Freddie actually had tighter standards than the crap being written by mortgage brokers, clamored for by Wall Street, then packaged as AAA when it was really junk, which was pencil-whipped by Moody's and S&P, so the pig would have lipstick, which then was sold to people who didn't understand that AAA really wasn't...
Of course, so much money was being made that even Fannie and Freddie joined the subprime party. And, so much money was being made that clearer heads never prevailed...
Alan Greenspan himself remarked how surprised he was that the market didn't self-regulate.
As for the "bail-outs", the cascading bankruptcies that would have taken place without them would have been cold comfort.
Since everyone had a hand in it, no one deserves to feel much righteous indignation, either over the Great Recession, or the financial shape we're in as a country. Since neither side wants to reach an agreement at the expense of losing power, or, gasp, arrgh, compromise, we have the current situation.