I feel like I'm getting pretty close to it myself.
What Frank represents to me is your typical Democrat; they quit when faced with a tough fight. Say what you want about Repuglicans; at least they filibuster and fight.
"Frank will not run again; Redrawn district drives one-of-a-kind from seat" November 29, 2011|By Frank Phillips and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
Facing a new electoral hurdle in a dramatically redrawn district, US Representative Barney Frank, a stalwart of Massachusetts politics for more than 40 years and one of the nation’s leading liberal voices, announced yesterday that he will leave Congress when his term expires.
Frank said the Massachusetts Legislature’s decision to carve up his congressional district and, in particular, to separate him from New Bedford, would have forced him to wage a reelection campaign in unfamiliar territory.
“I think I would have won but … it would have been a tough campaign,’’ said Frank, a Democrat first elected to Congress in 1980.
“I could not put the requisite effort into that,’’ Frank said, citing the demands of his current duties, the needs to raise funds and to introduce himself to new communities.
His decision to retire from public life is a milestone in Massachusetts and national politics. Frank, one of the first openly gay members of Congress, has for years been lionized by liberals across the country. Likewise, with his sharp tongue and rapier wit, Frank provoked antipathy from his most frequent targets, Republicans and social conservatives.
The announcement, delivered at a press conference in Newton’s City Hall, stunned the political world because Frank had told confidants, even in recent weeks, that he would fulfill a pledge he made in February to seek reelection, despite personal reservations.
But, according to close associates, the 71-year-old Newton Democrat decided on Thanksgiving Day that he did not have the energy or will to mount a difficult campaign in a redrawn district....
Frank was able to weather an early scandal, involving a male prostitute who ran an escort service out of his home, to win reelection easily and become a leading voice on financial regulation and a standard-bearer for the Democratic Party....
The lid was put on that awful quick, and I didn't think much of it at the time; however, looking back on it now that was part of the perverted sex rings that service the powerful.
Frank’s lowest point in his public career came in the 1980s, when he hired Steve Gobie, a male prostitute, out of his personal funds to work as a housekeeper and driver. He kicked him out of his Washington home after he found Gobie was running an escort service there.
So if you were looking for a gay date in D.C. you called Gobie at Barney's. How could he not know what was going on in his own home?
The House Ethics Committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the full House reprimanded Frank for his office’s help in fixing 33 traffic tickets for Gobie and providing some misstatements.
That last phrase means Barney lied, and putting the sex stuff aside, wouldn't he have questioned why he needed to fix so many tickets? Why was he fixing them in the first place?
Although he has increasingly earned a reputation in recent years for being cranky, short-tempered, and irascible, Frank was particularly relaxed and reflective as he met yesterday with reporters, many of whom he has upbraided over the years.
He gave lengthy and detailed answers defending his role in the financial crisis, said he regretted not supporting the initial 1991 Iraq invasion, and said he would leave it to others to define his legacy....
He regrets not supporting the first war built on lies?
I was going to say good bye-bye, but now it is good riddance.
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As for defining his legacy:
Bankers' Best Friend
Barney Frank is Bush's Best Friend
Banks Bought Off Both Parties
Barney Frank Benefited From Bailout Bill
Frank Fiddled With Bailout Funds (And Other Frauds)
Slow Saturday Special: Protecting Politicians
Barney Frank Benefited From State Debts
Municipal Bond Milking
Frankly Speaking
Sunday Globe Censorship: Barney Frank Tells Gays to Go F*** Themselves
Boston Globe Censored Briefs: Barney Frank Exhales Fart Mist
Not the way the approving, agenda-pushing Globe sees it:
"For 31 years, a liberal voice impossible to ignore" November 29, 2011|By Michael Kranish and Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
Love him or hate him, Barney Frank has for his 31 years in Washington been impossible to ignore.
His impact on debate and policy has been among the most significant of any recent House member outside the speaker’s office. In his powerful position as House Financial Services Committee chairman, Frank was a crucial backer of the bank bailout of 2008, and, with former senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, engineered the overhaul of Wall Street regulations, a measure designed to reduce the likelihood of another meltdown....
Actually, that measure and the administration's regulations have meant the bill meant nothing.
Related: Senate Sends Along Financial Fraud Bill
Heck of a way to cap a career.
And consider where we are now. I'm told if Europe melts down it's going to be another bailout situation. In fact, the Fed is sending dollars to Europe as I type.
Yeah, that bill really was a fine piece of work.
Between the upbringing in Jersey and the ivory towers of Cambridge, Frank developed a smarter-than-thou attitude and a liberal outlook that led to a life in politics....
So that's why he always rubbed me the wrong way.
Frank hired a male prostitute and used personal funds to pay him as an aide. When it was reported in 1989 that the man had run a prostitution ring from Frank’s Washington home years earlier, the lawmaker’s actions came under investigation.
Frank had denied he knew the man was running a prostitution ring. The House eventually voted 408-18 to reprimand Frank for using his congressional office to fix 33 of the man’s parking tickets. Frank was reelected in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote.
He had survived being written off by some as politically dead and rejected the advice of an editorial by the Globe calling for his resignation....
Although hailed by supporters and pilloried by foes for his liberal stances, Frank was known for his ability to work with Republicans on certain issues.
So all that political bather is nothing but bulls***?
In fact, Frank found an unlikely ally in Senator Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican who convinced him to add a provision in the Dodd-Frank bill that would exempt some insurance and mutual fund companies from certain regulations. Brown then cast a critical vote needed to break the GOP filibuster against the bill.
Campaign check to follow.
The Dodd-Frank law was in response to the credit meltdown of 2008, a financial calamity caused largely by problems in the housing market that were greatly amplified by the financial industry’s buying and selling of bundles of loans.
Look at how sanitized that version of the mortgage-backed securities fraud is.
They bundled crap, told people it was AAA, and then bet on the same securities to fail while selling them to local governments and pension plans.
And then you wonder why the politicians are attacking public employee unions and collective bargaining?
For years, Frank had worked enthusiastically to help lower-income people get home mortgages with the help of the quasi-government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
What happened there is Fannie and Freddie bought up the bad securities and then was used as a dumpster for the bad paper during the bailout. That's why they are in such bad shape, not because they backed mortgages for low-income people.
As early as 2003, Frank and other members of the Financial Services Committee had received reports from the director of the federal office responsible for overseeing Fannie and Freddie questioning their solvency, given their expanding portfolios and increasing reliance on risky investments.
But Frank continued to defend the lenders. He did not take action to rein them in until he became chair of the committee in January 2007. By the time he passed a bill out of committee requiring tighter restrictions on Fannie and Freddie, it was too late - the lenders had gobbled up risky mortgages and were headed for failure amid the foreclosure crisis....
That's because BARNEY WAS MAKING MONEY off his INVESTMENTS!
And if lenders failed why are they still clearing billions per quarter in profits?
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Yeah, Globe seemed to ignore that.
"Frank says new voting map edged him out; Feels districts favor other congressmen" by Matt Viser and Christopher Rowland Globe Staff / November 30, 2011
WASHINGTON — US Representative Barney Frank yesterday accused Beacon Hill lawmakers of drawing the new congressional map in a way that shortchanged him in favor of fellow congressmen Edward J. Markey and Stephen F. Lynch. Had they done otherwise, said Frank, he might have run again.
Like I said, faced with a fight they quit.
“Markey and Lynch were protected, and the rest of us got what they didn’t want,” he said. Losing the chance to pick up some choice suburban towns for his district, Frank said, retirement became a more attractive option.
During a 45-minute interview with Globe reporters in his Capitol Hill office, Frank asserted that Markey, with a suburban district that now extends west to Framingham and Ashland, and Lynch, from South Boston to the South Shore then west to Dedham, were given good districts.
The map was drawn up by Democrats in this overwhelmingly Democrat state, so WTF? Who did you piss off back here, Barn?
Several others — including himself; William R. Keating of Quincy; John Tierney of Salem; and Niki Tsongas of Lowell — got a bad deal, Frank said, even though those districts are still considered by many as safe Democratic seats....
And he's complaining the race is too tough.
Frank has received a number of calls from well-wishers, including former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s widow, Vicki Kennedy.
But he's looking out for you, average American.
He has also been contacted by several agents who want to help him write a book, secure a media contract, and line up lucrative speaking engagements. Frank said he has no interest in hosting a daily news program, but he could do weekly spots and join the speaking and lecture circuit.
Going to turn his public service celebrity in ca$h.
“I’ll be honest: I will make a lot of money,” Frank said. “I will talk less than I used to and get paid much more for it.”
Barney is closer to the elite than you, average American.
Frank said he will continue defending his biggest legislative accomplishment, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation overhaul of 2010....
How do you defend failure? Wall Street is back to the same old s***.
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Also see: For Frank's constituents, a jolt
