WaPo Continues Barney Frank Puffery with 'Barney's Greatest Hits'

By Ken Shepherd | November 30, 2011 | 13:22

Yesterday we noted how the Washington Post devoted both an A-section front-pager and a Style section front-pager to celebrating the career of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who announced his retirement from the House on Monday.

Today the Post's "In the Loop" columnist Al Kamen continued the paper's celebration with a look at "Frank's Greatest Hits", a collection of the Massachusetts Democrat's notable jokes and put-downs.

Kamen noted that while Frank once called to grouse that he hated his column, "we’ll miss his quips and pithy, sometimes withering comments." The Post staffer rattled off thirteen quotes, beginning with a now-infamous 2009 quip in which Frank dismissed a critical town hall participant by saying that addressing her concerns was "like trying to have an argument with a dining room table."

Kamen also dredged up a Reagan era-quip in which the liberal Democrat said, "I don't begrudge Ronald Reagan an occasional nap" because "it's not the dozing off of Ronald Reagan that causes us problems. It's what he does on those moments when he's awake."

Comments

#1 Just beat it, Barney! Sub-par pol shouldn’t be missed

Submitted by vrwc13 on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 2:36pm.

Just beat it, Barney!
Sub-par pol shouldn’t be missed
By Michael Graham bostonherald

Two generations ago, Will Rogers noted that the problem with Congress was that, when they told a joke, it became a law; and when they passed a law, it was a joke. And one of America’s biggest — and most expensive — political jokes has finally gotten to the punchline:

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.

Highlights:

A sitting congressman re-elected after his boyfriend is busted for running a male prostitution ring out of the congressman’s condo? Amazing.
Re-elected after it’s discovered another boyfriend helps run a major money-losing government agency “regulated” by the congressman’s committee? Astounding.
But after a third boyfriend is busted for growing pot while you’re sitting on his front porch?

Words fail. Then again, so did the voters who kept this joke going.

Barney’s real secret emerge:

Gerrymandering.
A few years ago, left-leaning Slate.com identified Frank’s district as one of the 10 most gerrymandered in America.
Last week, a more rational district was drawn. And Frank — knowing the truth — is jumping ship.

Forget the liberal love-fest. The open secret is that, as a congressman, Barney Frank has been

wrong about almost every major policy in his long public career.

From Reaganomics to
Obamacare

On Fannie and Freddie alone, “The World’s Most Expensive Legislator elped cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
But in 2003 when warning cries were sounded, Frank insisted that “we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially,” and that “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation toward subsidized housing.”
Getting the trillion-dollar subprime bet wrong was bad. What makes Frank worse is that he still can’t admit his mistake.
After the collapse he pushed for still more billions for new housing bailouts. He proposed a nonsensical $300 billion plan in 2008 and, when economists pointed out it might not actually help, The Hill quoted Frank as saying it was “irrelevant.”

Frank’s faux pas and policy failures could fill a book. Alas, many of them fill the pages of America’s law books.

...thank you Massachusetts

The burden of life is from ourselves, its lightness from the grace of Christ and the love of God. - William Bernard Ullanthorne

#2 You missed a classic!

Submitted by Fredy on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 5:38pm.

Remember the house committee hearing where Barney Frank claimed that the regulator that said Franklin Reins had 'cooked the books' so that Reins could get a multi-million dollar bonus was a racist?

I have always found that particular attack by Frank to be one of the most telling of his horrible bullying foul smelling career!

Of course, most people point to Watter's claim that the regulator should be investigated as the lowest point of that hearing!

How is it that the msm never mentions that meeting when they discuss the housing market collapse?

#3 That Blarney Frank

Submitted by pepperoniprince on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 2:52pm.

He's a puffer alright.

#4 he's an arrogant disgrace.

Submitted by sometimesright on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 3:02pm.

he's an arrogant disgrace. what makes it worse is he believes himself to be the exact opposite. when people around him are forcefully fired and/or tender their resignations then that should be a clue that maybe you're not doing your job. a typical liberal. what does that say about the people who praise him?

a beautiful thing to watch was when Bill O'Reilly tore into him when he tried to place blame squarely on the republicans for the housing crisis.

"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." Ronald Reagan