Barney Frank

Barney Frank
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 5, 1981
Preceded by	Robert Drinan
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	none
Residence	Newton, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Harvard College and Harvard Law School
Occupation	Attorney

Barnett "Barney" Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a Democrat and has represented Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 1981. The district includes many of Boston's western and southern suburbs — such as Brookline, Newton, and Foxborough — as well as the South Coast. He is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Early life

Frank was born to a Jewish family in Bayonne, New Jersey and was educated at Harvard College, where he resided in Kirkland House and then Winthrop House, graduating in 1962. He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a Ph.D., but left in 1968, before completing that degree, to become the Chief Assistant to Mayor Kevin White of Boston, a position he held for three years. He then served for one year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington.

In 1972, Frank was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. During that time, he entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1977.

While in state and local government, Frank taught part time at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Boston University. He published numerous articles on politics and public affairs, and in 1992 he published Speaking Frankly, an essay on the role the Democratic Party should play in the 1990s.

National politics

In 1979, Frank became a member of the Massachusetts Bar. A year later, he won the Democratic nomination for the seat of Father Robert Drinan, who had left Congress following a call by Pope John Paul II for priests to withdraw from political positions. In 1982, redistricting forced him to run against Republican Margaret Heckler. The newly configured district retained Frank's district number — the 4th — but was geographically more Heckler's district. Initially a heavy underdog, he focused on Heckler's initial support for President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts, and won by 20 percentage points. He hasn't faced credible opposition since, and has been reelected 12 times. The Republicans have not fielded an opponent against him since 2002.

1981, Congressional Pictorial Directory - Frank's first term as Congressman

Frank has been outspoken on many civil rights issues, including gay rights. In 1987, he spoke publicly about his homosexuality for the first time. He said in a 1996 interview: "I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority."

Barney Frank is probably best known for saying that there were no problems with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who quickly collapsed. He was the one politician in the position to know.

Reprimand

In 1990, the House voted to reprimand Frank when it was revealed that Steve Gobie, a male escort whom Frank had befriended after hiring him through a personal advertisement, claimed to have conducted an escort service from Frank's apartment when he was not at home. Frank had dismissed Gobie earlier that year and reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee after learning of Gobie's activities. After an investigation, the House Ethics Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity. Regarding Gobie's more scandalous claims the report by the Ethics Committee concluded, "In numerous instances where an assertion made by Mr. Gobie (either publicly or during his Committee deposition) was investigated for accuracy, the assertion was contradicted by third-party sworn testimony or other evidence of Mr. Gobie himself."

The New York Times reported on July 20, 1990 that the House Ethics Committee recommended "that Representative Barney Frank receive a formal reprimand from the House for his relationship with a male prostitute." Attempts to expel or censure Frank were led by Republican member Larry Craig (who himself was later embroiled in his own homosexual scandal) failed. Rather, the House voted 408-18 to reprimand him. This condemnation was not reflected in Frank's district, where he won re-election in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote, and has won by larger margins ever since.

Quips and controversies

In 1995, then-Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey referred to Frank as "Barney Fag" in a press interview. Armey apologized and said it was "a slip of the tongue". Frank did not accept Armey's explanation, and responded, "I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag."

In 1998, he founded the National Stonewall Democrats, the national gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Democratic organization. In 2004 and again in 2006, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian gave Frank the title of the "brainiest", "funniest", and "most eloquent" member of the House. As of May 2007, Frank is one of two openly gay members of Congress, the other being Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Frank is known for his witty, self-deprecating sense of humor. He once famously quipped that he was unable to complete his review of the Starr Report detailing President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, complaining that it was "too much reading about heterosexual sex".

Frank is also noted for his occasionally caustic remarks about Republicans. In a June 2007 New England Cable News interview, Frank said of Mitt Romney: "The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsoever. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics."

In June 2008, Frank pushed a bill through the House Natural Resources Committee that would designate an industrialized section of Massachusetts' Taunton River as a "wild and scenic river". The 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was intended to protect "outstandingly remarkable" ecosystems. Critics argued that Frank was abusing the act, pointing out that the section of the river in Fall River was congested with fuel storage tanks, container docks, warehouses, and industrial piers. They argued that Frank's real motivation was his opposition to a proposed natural gas terminal.

2008 Financial Crisis

Amidst the 2008 financial market turmoil, billionaire Rupert R. Murdoch has repeatedly pointed blame at Frank and a few others as the root cause of the recent housing crisis. In a recent interview, Murdoch claimed that Frank's plan in the early nineties pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make "bad" loans to "underprivileged" families. An anonymous opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal (owned by Murdoch's News Corp) on September 9th 2008 further describes Barney Frank as the Patron Saint of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As late as 2003 Frank rejected Bush administration proposals for increased oversight of Fannie Mae. The market at the time was reaping great profits and further regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have opened the very lucrative sub-prime mortgage products to Wall Street firms. As sub-prime loans started to falter a year ago, the administration worked to move the loans back. According to the New York Times, "The White House also pitched in. James B. Lockhart, the chief regulator of Fannie and Freddie, adjusted the companies’ lending standards so they could purchase as much as $40 billion in new subprime loans. Some in Congress praised the move."

Frank rejected further government intervention in the mortgage lending industry and stated 'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'

Frank, like many elected Representatives, has collected tens of thousands of dollars from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in campaign contributions - $42,350. In an October 2008 report, Fox News also found that Frank's gay lover, Herb Moses, was an executive at Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, where he "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs." Many critics say such programs led to the subprime mortgage meltdown that forced the government to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The report also found that in 1991, "the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively."

On July 14, 2008 in an interview on business news channel CNBC Frank said, "I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They're not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward. They're in a housing market. I do think their prospects going forward are very solid. And in fact, we're going to do some things that are going to improve them."

On September 24, 2008, Frank reacted to Republican nominee John McCain's suspension of his presidential campaign by saying it was "the longest Hail Mary in the history of either football or Marys." At the time he also said “McCain is Andy Kaufman in his Mighty Mouse costume - "Here I Come to Save the Day."

Political positions

In Congress, Frank is an ardent supporter of medical marijuana. He was the author of the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act (H.R. 2592), an attempt to stop federal government from intervening with states' medical marijuana laws. Frank consistently voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, annually proposed by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), that would prohibit Department of Justice from prosecuting medical marijuana patients. As of March 2008, he is trying to pass the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008 (HR 5843), which would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Frank has also been a critic of aspects of the Federal Reserve system, partnering with some Republicans in this opposition. Frank says that he and Republican Congressman Ron Paul "first bonded because we were both conspicuous nonworshipers at the Temple of the Fed and of the High Priest [Alan] Greenspan.”

Frank has also partnered with Paul in support of online gambling rights. In 2006, both strongly opposed H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, and H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. To restore online gambling rights, in 2007 Frank sponsored H.R. 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act. This bill would have established licensing and regulation of online gaming sites. It provided for age verification and protections for compulsive gamblers. In 2008, he and Paul introduced H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act, a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling". As a result of these efforts, Frank (who does not gamble) has become a hero to poker players and online gamblers, including many Republicans.

In 2006, Frank was one of only three Representatives to oppose the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which restricted protests (notably those of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church) at soldiers' funerals. He opposed the bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate, on civil liberties and constitutional grounds. Frank said of the vote, "I think it’s very likely to be found unconstitutional. It’s true that when you defend civil liberties you are typically defending people who do obnoxious things... You play into their hand when you let them provoke you into overdoing it. I don’t want these thugs to [make the] claim [that] America is hypocritical."

The Frank Rule

Frank's blunt stance on outing certain gay Republicans has become well-publicized. The "Frank Rule" holds it acceptable to out a closeted gay person who uses his power, position, or notoriety to hurt gay people. The issue became especially relevant during the Mark Foley page scandal of 2006, during which Frank clarified his position on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher:

I think there's a right to privacy. But the 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.

Chair of the House Financial Services Committee

As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee beginning in 2007, Frank "sits at the center of power". Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was quoted as saying, "He is one of the giants of Congress, a real legislator," in his new role.

In 2003, Frank opposed Bush administration and Congressional Republican efforts for the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis. Under the plan a new agency would have been created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that were the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. "These two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis," Frank said. He added, "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Frank supported passage of the American Housing Rescue & Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. The bill purports to protect thousands of homeowners from foreclosure. This law, H.R. 3221, and was one of the most important and complex issues on which he worked. Frank was also instrumental is the passage of H.R. 5244, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008.

References

• Johansson, Warren & Percy, William A. Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Harrington Park Press, 1994. pp. 106, 139, 143, 154, 157, 188-9, 228, 231, 235, 291
• Rapp, Linda (2004). "Frank, Barney". glbtq.com. Retrieved 2007-08-16.

External links

• Congressman Barney Frank U.S. House website
• Barney Frank for Congress Campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia

Articles

• A Liberal Wit Builds Bridges To the G.O.P., The New York Times, May 13, 2008.
• Congressman Frank defends trans-exclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, The Bilerico Project, September 28, 2007.
• The Republicans' Democracy Disorder, In These Times, 2006-02-04
• Congressman Barney Frank: A Buzzflash Interview, Buzzflash, July 22, 2003
• Monumentally Frank: Interview with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank Metro Weekly, March 20, 2003.
• Frank Discusses U.S. Policy, Attitude Regarding Gay Rights, The Hoya, October 19, 2001.
• An Interview with U.S. Representative Barney Frank, keithboykin.com, 1999.

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