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Bless you Barney Frank
I love Barney Frank. As chaiman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, this past week he's been all over the news channels discussing the 700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout. Regardless of what you think about the proposed bailout plan (and feel free to share in the comments section) there is something quite reassuring for the GLBT community in having him be so visible of late. The man is enormously popular with his constituents. First elected in 1980, he’s been re-elected 12 times. (Republicans haven’t even bothered to field an opponent for his house seat since 2002). Frank is also one of only two openly gay members of the U.S. House of Representatives (the other being Tammy Baldwin). He came out publicly in 1987. 1990 was probably a low point in Frank’s political career. His former housemate Steve Gobie went public with claims that he had been operating a male escort service out of Frank’s apartment. Ironically, Republican Larry Craig led the charge to have Frank expelled or censured over this scandal. Ultimately, the House voted only to reprimand him. Even with that incident hanging over him, Barney Frank won his 1990 re-election bid with 66% of the vote. Throughout his political career Frank has been a staunch advocate for GLBT causes. He has also publicly threatened to out closeted politicians who use their seat of power to advocate anti-gay positions. As Frank explained what has come to be called “The Frank Rule:” “I think there’s a right to privacy. But that right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy. And people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves.” All too often closeted homosexuals are the most publicly homophobic – so you can’t help but wonder if Frank’s not so veiled threat to out closeted anti-gay politicians has helped to reduce the homophobic vitriol in American politics. Bless you for that and a thousand other things, Barney. Submitted by on Mon, 2008-09-29 11:58. |
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Barney Frank
Love him
He's also been called the smartest man in congress and is one of the funniest congressmen off the cuff.
One of my favorite quotes:
“This bill is the legislative equivalent of crack. It yields a short-term high but does long-term damage to the system and it's expensive to boot.”
And on McCain's stunt this week:
"It's the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys."
I Am Glad Barney Is On Our Side
Barney Frank is certainly a character. Anyone who has seen him on Bill Maher's Real Time HBO show knows he nevers backs down from a fight and often hilariously takes on an BS Conservatives try to throw his way.
I know he has come under fire from the GLBT community because he did not back a trans-inclusive ENDA bill when he realized it did not have enough support from other Democrats to pass, or because he has backed Senator Clinton's position that it would be foolish to repeal the part of DOMA that keeps states from having to recognize other state's legal same-sex marriages out of fear it might give power to those calling for an anti-gay Federal marriage amendment.
However, every single person in this country is lucky to have Barney Frank supporting us.
This Is Why I Love Barney
As you probably know, the bailout bill failed this afternoon, and the GOP is trying to blame the failure on 'hurt feelings' from a speech given by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the vote.
Rep. Barney Frank mocked the GOP reasoning in a news conference. Said Frank:
"Here’s the story. There’s a terrible crisis affecting the American economy. We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis. And because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country. I mean, I would not have imputed that degree of pettiness and hypersensitivity. We also have — as the leader will tell you, who’s been working with them — don’t believe they had the votes, and I believe they’re covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes. But think about this. Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country. That’s hardly plausible. And there are 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if anybody insulted them. I’ll make an offer. Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they’ll now think about the country."
Barney Frank: divisive doofus? corruption?
As it happens 95 Democrats voted with the slight majority of Republicans to defeat the bailout plan including such noted Democratic right-wing extremists such as Dennis Kuscinich, Lorretta Sanchez and Bob Filner. That was sarcasm.
The Democratic leadership couldn't move enough of their own members to ensure this Bush plan passed and now they want to blame Republicans for the failure of this boondoggle.
Constituents all over the country are flooding congress with phone calls about this deal. Polling suggests the typical American doesn't want to take on bad debt from the failures of incompetent millionaire executives.
I wouldn't canonize Barney Frank. His role in hamstringing regulations over the years needs to be scrutinized closely. Just this year alone, he's taken over $50,000 in lobbyist donations connected to AIG, Lehmann Bros, and Merrill Lynch! Check out sites like http://realtime.sunlightprojects.org/ for details on the lobbying.
A (now former) lover of 10 years was an executive for Fannie Mae while Frank was on the oversight committee. How serious did these conflict of interest influence his behavior? If he was Republican you'd all be demanding a closer look. Graft and corruption do not discriminate based on party affiliation.
Really bad Karma!
Being Silly
Oh come on now, quit being silly.
Democrats voted in favor of the bill by 140-95, while Republicans were 65-133. Obviously, Republicans are totally to blame for the bill's failure. This is not a liberal vs. conservative issue. The Democrats are ironically supporting the initiative of a hated Republican president, and they're doing it for the good of the country, not their party.
What has impressed (and scared) me is the consistent opinion by people along the political spectrum (many of whom I respect) that real calamities could occur to our economy without a bill of this type. This is from US News and World Report: "Duke University finance Prof. Campbell Harvey predicts there could be 750 to 1,000 bank failures over the next six months because of billions in bad assets stemming from the housing meltdown. Scarce credit also threatens other types of companies that are already struggling and desperately need capital, such as the Detroit automakers and some of the airlines." We've already seen what the stock market has done, and markets throughout the world are moving in the direction of meltdown.
And yes, it's the Republicans who are to blame. Once again: Democrats, 140-95; Republicans 65-133.
There's going to be a bill passed.
There's going to be a bill that bails out the financial companies on Wall Street. It'll happen sometime this week. If this had happened in a non-election year, there wouldn't have been such an outcry among House Republicans. The vote today was pure politics, and it's backfiring big time on them.
People aren't going to like what's in this bill. Heck, politicians are going to hate this bill. It's going to eat up all of the money available for new programs with a new Presidential Administration. We have the potential to lose over 200 billion dollars. That's a lot of money, even for Congress. Unfortunately, it's needed and somebody has to be the grownup and make sure it gets passed. Supposedly John McCain had "shown leadership" and gotten House GOP members to pass the bill. Unfortunately for the country, we're getting a first hand look at how incompetent he truly is. I guarantee you, by the end of the week President Bush will have wrangled up the necessary thirteen votes from the GOP to make sure it passes. You can say all you want about him, and I've said a lot of horrible things about him, but he knows how to get GOPers to vote for what he wants. I think he has some blackmail material on them or mind control over them. At the end of the day, the guys who are getting helped are the close personal friends of the Republicans. They'll make sure that they'll get their due.
Actually Duckiestoy, you're misunderstanding the agreement
between the Democrats and the Republicans. Knowing that this was a necessary -- but deeply unpopular -- bill, the grown-ups in the Democratic and Republican party each agreed to deliver enough combined votes to pass the bill. The leaders of each party allowed congresspeople in the safest districts to vote for the bill and those vulnerable in their districts to vote against. The Democrats delivered the votes they promised, while the Republicans weren't able to. Unfortunately, for John McCain he boasted ahead of time that he had delivered the votes and now looks ridiculous.
Also, it wasn't a "slight" majority of Republicans who voted against the bill. It was 67%.
Barney Frank
When Tip O'Neill, famous former Speaker of the House, found out that Frank was gay, he supposedly said that it was a shame that he was gay because he would make a great Speaker.
Frank is one of the most powerful members in Congress. He is the chair of the Financial Services committee. However, what makes him even more powerful is his knowledge of the Rules of the House. If you ask anyone in the House: Who is the most knowledgeable about the rules? Many, if not all of them, will tell you that Barney Frank knows his stuff. That's why when there is a contentious debate on the floor of the House, a lot of the time Frank will be in the Chair moderating the debate. He was a thorn in the side of the Republicans when the Democrats were in the minority because of his knowledge of the rules.