Thursday, April 09, 2009
Barney Frank gets prickly at Harvard
Not to be the last rightly blog to link to this, but Barney Frank (D-MA) seems awfully defensive at a public appearance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government while taking a question from a student at his old graduate school, Harvard Law School:
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If the questioner above becomes a litigator, he might learn not to let the other side define the beginning and ending points in time that bracket the topic of discussion. Note the 2003 dates of the sections with Rep. Frank (when he was on the committee but not yet the Chairman):
I am not sure why Rep. Frank insists on denying his misjudgment with respect to Fannie and Freddie -- it is almost as if he likes the late 1990s Clinton playbook of stonewall and denial. I don't know enough about his district to understand whether that seat is his for life if he so desires, but in the age of YouTube, denial only gets you so far.
11 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Apr 10, 08:22:00 AM:
Denial does in fact only go so far, and Frank should be well past that point. Yet he seems not to be. Why is he still well-regarded by his constituents and much of the media?
By , at
Fri Apr 10, 08:34:00 AM:
From Link:
Barney Frank is in a very safe seat in Massachusetts. It combines very liberal suburbs like Brookline with working class towns like New Bedford -- places in Massachusetts that have always abhorred Republicans. There may be no getting rid of Barney. He's already survived scandals that would have driven mere mortals from office.
We could survive a few kooks in the House, but we have a more systemic problem. We allow so much latitude in the drawing of districts that our representatives pick us -- we don't pick them. Those in power have always played with drawing district lines to increase political advantage -- but it's gotten out of control. It accelerated with the idea of creating black dominated districts to ensure that a black got elected. Republicans went aloing with this -- as it marginalized the black vote. So we now have districts that look like Jackson Pollock splatter. The Supreme Court doesn't want to address this, but should. We've let it go on for so long it's embedded.
I used to say that one of the great things about American politics is that it created surprising coalitions. A hundred years ago, an Irishman couldn't become mayor in NYC or Boston without winning the Italian vote ... I could go one with many more examples. Parties competed for the middle and consensus. We've lost that in the last two decades.
I believe that the American people aren't as divided as our two parties -- this is especially true if you look at our representatives in the House ... they often come from the extremes of both parties. The way districts are drawn is a factor in this.
So now we have a Congress filled with kooks -- as well as corrupt playas. With Democrats in control -- they'll break the bank, if we let them.
Nancy Pelosi was just on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I wish I could find a short clip. It's worth going on Comedy Central.com to see. You need to pick the whole show and forward to about the 20 minute mark. Stewart subtly calls her on being profligate ... as much as he can in his position. Nancy is one of the most influential people in the world right now ... but she's deluded ... and -- like Barney Frank -- drunk on power. She really believes the new budget is a "blueprint for the future" and that she's directing trillions in "investments." God save us all.
By , at
Fri Apr 10, 09:04:00 AM:
"If the questioner above becomes a litigator, he might learn not to let the other side define the beginning and ending points in time that bracket the topic of discussion."
Amen. The kid asking the questions really let old Barney off the hook. That said, Republicans in a far better position to do so haven't adequately gone for that turd's throat, so I can't be too disappointed if a wet-behind-the-ears college kid didn't.
By , at
Fri Apr 10, 09:31:00 AM:
On the list of much wished for Constitutional amendments, one regarding gerrymandering of districts would be right up there. Sadly, we're probably not going to see very many amendments going forward.
By 
joe buz, at
Fri Apr 10, 09:40:00 AM:
60 minutes did a recent puff piece on Barn, referring to him several times as "the smartest man in Congress". That and mention that he was at a time being groomed to become speaker but once he came out of the closet, he was discriminated against. My take is that he is too firmly entrenched in his victim hood to be guilty of obstructionism or anything else.
By , at
Fri Apr 10, 04:23:00 PM:
Depressingly enough, he's my "representative", and calling this a safe seat doesn't begin to approach the reality. In the ten or so years I've lived here he's only had one or two token opponents and wins with about 90% of the vote.
The Gerrymander was born here and (IIRC) this was the first gerrymandered district. The local media has been hypnotized by Kennedy worship for decades and publishes fawning op-eds in praise of Hugo Chavez.
Frank gets nothing but praise in the local news and is portrayed as a champion of the little guy. His role in the imposition of the CRA and in protecting Fannie and Freddie from oversight are completely off-limits.
He's not stupid, but he's as narcissistic and self absorbed as Obama. I once called his office to complain about false statements about missile defense he had made on NPR and was surprised to find that he answered his own phone, but unsurprised to find that he was completely uninterested in the engineering reality of NMD, or any other information contradicting his ideology.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Apr 10, 08:55:00 PM:
Should have recorded the call.
By , at
Fri Apr 10, 10:36:00 PM:
Link again,
I'm from NYC, but got to vote for the first time in Massachusetts in 1980 while in school. My choices were Reagan or Carter. Below that I could pick Tip O'Neill for Congress or a Socialist. Below that I had even less choice.
At the time I thought it a quirky aberration, but it's become too typical.
By , at
Sat Apr 11, 01:35:00 PM:
Greed, arrogance, dishonesty, absence of personal integrity ... Barny embodies them all. And the MSM gives this guy a pass, virtually extols him. Fine values and examples to hasten the decline of our national fiber.
I am sad about this, but mostly for what it bodes for our young and subsequent generations.
By , at
Sat Apr 11, 02:10:00 PM:
I very much agree with that last comment-- public virtue seems like a dead letter in our communities and, as you say, that will make for a bleak future.
By , at
Sat Apr 11, 08:15:00 PM:
Bawney Fwank as Speaker of the House?? LOL.
