Salon.com > Barney Frank

Why it won’t be Barney Frank

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Tuesday night marked the end of what was likely the final full day of campaigning in Barney Frank’s long political career. The former congressman and liberal icon unexpectedly inserted himself several weeks ago into the race to fill a four-month interim Senate appointment – a race that has only one declared candidate (Frank himself) and that will be decided by only one voter, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

With the Senate confirming John Kerry as Secretary of State late Tuesday, Patrick is set to announce his pick in Boston today, with the appointee serving through the June 25 special election, which will fill the remaining 18 months of Kerry’s term. Because of his national reputation, Frank’s quest for the appointment has attracted considerable attention, and his central argument seems reasonable enough: Frank is legislatively savvy and has long been a champion of an expansive social safety net; with rollbacks to Medicare and Social Security potentially on the table in the coming months, Democrats could do worse than to have his experience and voice in the Senate.

Why is Barney Frank breaking the rules?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:42:00 +0000

Barney Frank is breaking the rule of politics that says if you want a major appointment, you should never, ever talk about it publicly.

The longtime Massachusetts congressman, whose 32-year run in the House ended last week, declared on national television last Friday that he wants his state’s governor, Deval Patrick, to appoint him as an interim senator when John Kerry is confirmed as secretary of state. And Frank has now followed up that announcement with a series of high-profile interviews.

His pitch is sensible enough. Because the fiscal cliff deal simply deferred the debate over cuts to the social safety net and left in place several deadlines that Republicans are now claiming give them leverage, the interim senator from Massachusetts – who would serve until a special election late this spring – would be thrust into an unusually consequential debate.

“I do think, immodestly, that given the important decision that will be made about these complicated questions, in February, March and April, I’m very well-qualified,” Frank told Politico in his latest interview, “because I don’t know of anybody else who’s been doing these things so continuously who’s ready to jump in.”

Barney Frank says he wants Senate appointment

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:20:00 +0000

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., says that he wants to be appointed to John Kerry's Senate seat until a special election is held, should Kerry get confirmed as secretary of state.

On "Morning Joe," Frank said: “A month ago, or a few weeks ago, in fact I said I wasn’t interested. It was kind of like you’re about to graduate, and they said: ‘You gotta go to summer school.’ But [the fiscal cliff deal] now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history."

He added that he has "told the governor that I would now like, frankly, to do that," but that he is only interested in serving for the three-month period before a special election this summer. "I wouldn't want to run again," Frank said.

Watch:

Must-see morning clip

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Retiring Rep. Barney Frank, D.-Mass., calls out retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R.-Texas, for her mealy-mouthed attempt to prolong the Benghazi controversy, "Who are you accusing of not having done the right thing?"

Via Think Progress:

Barney Frank: “Within 10 years, we will have won this fight”

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Last night was a huge win for LGBT activists. Marriage equality passed by referendum for the first time in American history in Maine, Maryland and Washington, while Minnesota rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and Democrat Tammy Baldwin will become the Senate's first openly gay member after winning a close race in Wisconsin.

Salon spoke with Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, to get his reaction to the news and thoughts on the future of the equality fight. This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity.

A big night, what was your immediate reaction?

I was very happy. I expected good news, but wasn’t planning on perfect news. By the way, in addition to Tammy’s win, which is big, and the referenda, we have several new openly gay members of Congress. Mark Takano in California; Sean Maloney in Westchester County in New York; Mark Pocan replacing Tammy, so that’ll mean at least five [openly gay] representatives. It’s a significant increase. And then to win all four of the referenda? It was very good news.

Barney Frank’s electoral “Wizard of Oz” analogy

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:35:00 +0000

As far as literary allusions go, this one's pretty topical. Retiring Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank was on ABC's "This Week With Christiane Amanpour" yesterday discussing the Republican field of presidential candidates. During the conversation, he drew parallels between the current slate of hopefuls and characters from the L. Frank Baum classic, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz":

Obviously, Mitt Romney is the tin woodman, without a heart. Rick Perry is clearly the scarecrow. He illustrates the point that what's scary about people isn't what they don't know, but what they know that isn't true.

The myth of Barney Frank

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I was sorry to see Barney Frank retire. He’s a good guy. He meant well. That’s what my mother used to say about a well-intentioned but ineffectual person, like maybe the butcher who threw in an extra piece of meat that wasn’t chewable.“He means well,” she’d say.

Or, like the nice kid who used to get beaten up by bullies, Frank was always unafraid to go on Fox News and mix it up with Bill O’Reilly. The right hated him, pushing the trope that “Fannie and Freddie” were the cause of the 2008 financial crisis, not the banks. Or the Community Reinvestment Act, not the banks. Always the government, never the banks. The criticisms stung, even though baloney like the CRA yarn had been refuted “up, down and sideways,” as Paul Krugman once pointed out.