Tag: barney frank

Rooting For Injuries Watch: Barney Frank slams Chuck Hagel.

Let us segue away from the disappointment which is contemporary American fiscal policy to something a good deal more enjoyable: to wit, kneeing the White House’s prospective Cabinet picks in their (metaphorical) groins.  Latest up?  Chuck Hagel, come on down!

Outgoing Rep. Barney Frank Monday denounced the idea of former Sen. Chuck Hagel being considered for secretary of defense, arguing the Nebraska conservative has demonstrated a clear pattern of bigotry and and a track record of being “against fairness for LGBT people.”

Via Hot Air Headlines.  There’s a rumor out there that Barney Frank’s being considered for a Senate caretaker gig for Massachusetts if Kerry gets the nod for SecState, and goodness knows that Frank (a man I quite cordially despise) isn’t shy about stating his opinion.  However, this is still a pretty open break.  I wonder how much longer Hagel will last? – Particularly, now that the aforementioned American fiscal disappointment is on the verge of going on the back burner…

#RSRH QotD, Don’t Let The Door Hit You In The :coughcoughcough: edition.

The Boston Herald’s Michael Graham, who is somehow managing to hold it together at the tragic news that Barney Frank is cutting and running:

Barney Frank is leaving office at the end of his term. Maybe he just wants to spend more quality time with his pot-growing prostitute friends in the sub-prime lending business.

I apologize for the mean-spiritedness of that last comment. It’s particularly mean-spirited because it’s demonstrably true.

Not to mention, restrained.

Moe Lane

PS: The conventional wisdom is hardening that Frank is cutting and running because redistricting really did hurt him.  I dunno if I really buy into that, but the upcoming brawl for the seat should still be interesting to watch.

#rsrh BREAKING: BARNEY FRANK CUTS AND RUNS.

Via @pinkelephantpun; more as we get it.

[UPDATE]:  CNN now reporting this (via Weasel Zippers).  Note that this is probably not a redistricting compromise: John Olver (MA-01) had previously announced his retirement in October.  One wonders if a shoe is going to drop with regard to Frank’s sudden announcement…

[ANOTHER UPDATE]: There’s going to be a press conference? (Via @michellemalkin)  Oh, boy…

#rsrh Ron Paul/Barney Frank’s defederalization of pot initiative.

They want regulation of marijuana to be up to the states.  My reaction?

  1. [rank, hideous hypocrisy that is courting a lightning strike from its sheer, brazen effrontery] No-one under the age of 21 should be allowed to smoke marijuana.  Period.  Never, ever, ever, ever. [/rank, hideous hypocrisy that is courting a lightning strike from its sheer, brazen effrontery]*
  2. It is exceedingly unlikely that this is ever going to pass, given that darn few politicians on both sides of the aisle wish to appear weak on what the libertarians call The War on Some Drugs.
  3. I can think of several hundred things that I’d rather see the federal government do than go after pot smokers.  That list includes ‘naming post offices.’
  4. It’d be so worth it, from a vicious partisan point of view, to get this bill passed by Congress – just to hear the screams of outrage on campuses across the nation when President Obama vetoed it.

And… that’s pretty much it.

Moe Lane

*Really, it’s amazing how I still haven’t been struck by lightning.  I wrote that last night.

#rsrh Get your Barney Frank bribe money in early!

A colleague of mine pointed out an interesting wrinkle in this stunning news that Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA-04) has actually loaned his campaign $200K – which is, by the way, not the sign of a confident campaign – to wit, that the next 200K that Barney Frank raises goes back to him.  Not the campaign; him.

Ever want to buy a chairman of the House Financial Services Committee?  Now’s your chance!  And it’s a fire sale, folks: whether or not Barney keeps his job as Congressman in November, he’s not exactly expecting to be the Financial Chair after January.  So if you want to make a deal, now’s the time…

Moe Lane

PS: Or you could donate to Sean Bielat.  OK, so they’re not exactly trying to draw from the same financial sources.

Barney Frank’s SO heckles Sean Bielat.

Via DaTechGuy and Fleming and Hayes comes forty-five seconds of amusement.  For those without video access, the video below shows Sean Bielat (Barney Frank’s challenger in MA-04) being (badly) heckled by an onlooker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWmLAqYjvLg&feature=player_embedded

Turns out that said heckler was Frank’s SO James Ready, who you might remember from the pot bust thing, or perhaps the yelling at ophthalmologists thing.   Sean Bielat, of course, you know from the suddenly giving Barney Frank a real race for a change thing. Continue reading Barney Frank’s SO heckles Sean Bielat.

Barney Frank calls Barack Obama dumb.

(H/T Instapundit) Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I respect Barney Frank’s political skills.  I absolutely can’t stand what he uses those skills for, but I recognize that Rep. Frank has them, and that he knows how to use them effectively.  To give just one example, Rep. Frank was about the only Democrat to make it through last year’s August health care meltdown without looking like either an abject coward, or a purblind fool*. You don’t have to like him – and I don’t – to recognize that.

Which is why Rep. Frank calling the Obama administration “dumb” for putting out an expectation of 8% unemployment if the stimulus passed is so interesting. First off, it’s a refreshing change from the previous narrative, which was that you were a dirty racist right-wing homophobe for taking the Romer-Bernstein graph seriously in the first place**.  True, it turns out that people were idiots for taking the stimulus as a job saver seriously, but that’s a different issue. Continue reading Barney Frank calls Barack Obama dumb.

Barney Frank no longer hiding contempt for activist base.

So Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA) has told off progressives: he insists that they must only attempt to mount primary challenges to ‘conservative’ Democrats in districts where the Democrats have a lock on the seat anyway. If they don’t, well, apparently the response then is to suffer – or perhaps move: Rep. Frank didn’t say so, but it seems a logical enough alternative.  No, really, that’s what he said… while couching it in terms of going out in November and voting for the Democrats that they hate anyway:

“I said don’t defeat conservative Democrats in November . . . the place to do that is in the primary,” Frank said Friday in an interview. But Frank added his caveat that such a primary challenge should only come in districts where a more liberal candidate would win in November.

Now, putting aside the fact that this effectively restricts liberals to their current urban reservations ghettos enclaves (a seat with a ‘conservative’ Democrat in it is pretty much the definition of ‘at risk’ these days, and they won’t get less risky because of a successful primary challenge from the Left), the amazing thing about this statement is not that a Democratic, supposedly liberal politician is making it, or not even that he’s making it in public.  It’s that Rep. Frank felt perfectly comfortable telling that to the faces of a bunch of progressive activists.  It is fascinating to witness the sheer contempt that the Democratic party has towards its own base; for contrast, imagine what would happen if a conservative politician went to CPAC or the RedState Gathering to tell the activists found there that they must only primary challenge moderate Republican incumbents in districts where the GOP was going to win anyway.  Let me put it this way: the response would involve the words “rip,” “head,” “defecate,” and “neck.*” Continue reading Barney Frank no longer hiding contempt for activist base.

#rsrh I will give Charles Djou money if this happens.

And I’m not a Birther, either.

I’m a Birther critic in good standing but I dig Tom Maguire’s reply to Frank: Djou should authorize Hawaii to release his long-form birth certificate, just to show how quickly and painlessly it can be done. Not in a million years will that happen — there’s no sense in gratuitously antagonizing Obama fans back in his home district, where he’ll have have a tough time getting reelected even under favorable circumstances — but I like the idea of Djou ambushing Frank during some press availability in the Capitol hallway. Just toss him the folder, hold up a finger, and say, “One week.”

I never would have suggested that Djou do this, but if Barney Frank feels the need to spout off it seems a shame to not take advantage of it.