The never-humble Barney Frank is right. Governor Deval Patrick should appoint him to the interim Senate seat that must be filled if Senator John Kerry resigns to serve as secretary of state. As immodest as it is for Frank to suggest, it’s hard to imagine a better choice.
Choosing Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Ted Kennedy, is about sentiment and respect for her husband’s long career in the Senate. Choosing outgoing Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez is an act of pure, feel-good symbolism — make that feel-good symbolism for Gonzalez and his boss, Governor Deval Patrick, not feel-good symbolism for most Massachusetts citizens.
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Absolutely the best for the people of Massachusetts. Where does it say we have to have a lame duck senator for an interim period. Go get em Senator Frank!!!
Yes! It should be clearly evident......he has done so much for so many during his tenure as a representative.....especially for the people of Fall River and southeastern Massachusetts......an area of the state often forgotten by those in higher political office.
so - last I heard Harry Reid was senate Majority Leader - aside from that - good article
Sounds like the perfect personality for concensus building in these difficult times?
Retired congressmen should stay retired!
Oh, yes...we are so lucky to have him available...he knows Capital Hill so well, and everybody knows him. He is clearly the best choice for effective representation in the interim!
What a freaking idiotic approach! He really wants the seat to tick off Markey et al? way he should be appointed.
I see the right-wingers already have their underwear in knots. They absolutely hate him because he's a liberal -- and a liberal who has the gall to be outspoken and not be cowed by Fox. They will be apoplectic and screaming like banshees if Frank gets it.
Frank should be appointed for many good reasons. And thanks, Joan, for one of your better columns.
But an added benefit will be reading the reaction of Frank haters on these forums. It will be hilarious.
Joan, the only reason you like him is because he is an extreme left wing liberal, Other than that, Barney has no business running. He has since moved out of state and is only doing it as a vendetta against Markey who forced him out by redistricting him. In he addition brought the housing market to its knees, which started the meltdown, then told us not to worry about Freddie and Frannie less than 6 months before it went under. Lets face Joan, if he had the hated (R) next to his name, you would have nailed him to the cross.
Important point you seem to miss: he's not "running", it's a temporary appointment, but don't worry about facts, they're not important.
What was that? Markey did the redistricting?
The redistricting is done by the legislature, not the Congressmen. Markey was the senior Congressman in the state, so the legislature decided to keep his district largely intact, which effected Frank's district. It made Frank's district more Republican.
More Republican or not, Joe Kennedy had a truly overwhelming victory there.
Would they let Barney out of prison for the mortgage mess he was directly involved in? Or could he just do the work from his cell?
If anyone ever gets imprisoned, Frank will be way, way down the list behind a lot of other politicians.
They haven't even nailed any bankers or other financial managers, and they're the ones directly responsible.
Yes! That will help end the gridlock.
You may not like his politics, but Frank is a politician, not a mindless uncompromising ideologue like every tea party member in Congress.
BTW - compromise is not a dirty word, it is the only way things get done in the real world. Refusal to compromise = political gridlock, so don't lay the problem on Frank, save your bile for Norquist and his slavish followers.
The gridlock is mainly in the House and it's caused by the Hastert Rule. The rule is that Republicans will allow a bill to come to the floor for a vote unless the Republicans have enough votes to pass it on their own without any Democratic support.
Boehner ignored that rule for the fiscal cliff compromise and it passed by a combination of votes from moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans. That's the way Congress worked for generations, but not in recent years.
As long as Republicans stick to the Hastert Rule (named after the previous Republican Speaker), they are to blame for gridlock in the House.
I disagreed with you on your Ed Markey column for lack of, in my opinion, not understanding the political game. In this is column you're correct in supporting a very political move that I like. Representative Barney Frank fully knows the ways of Washington and the fiscal issues. Republicans, yes Republicans and Democrats, yes Democrats were both participants in the housing mess. And no one better than Barney Frank to explain that to the other side. He has done it before in the national media. He bested O'Reilly in public debate with both facts and bravado. Contrary to popular opinion, Barney Frank is not confrontational, he simply answers those who question him with great knowledge, a quick analysis and best tool of all, a real cunning wit. Saying all that I predict that Governor Patrick is not likely to select Barney Frank because Barney Frank does not fit the milder political style of Deval Patrick. An opportunity missed. And might I add a very political statement, if Frank is not picked for Interim Senator, President Obama will have had great input in that decision maybe not by direct word but by a wink and a nod. Nice column. Happy New Year, Joan and to all who still read newspapers and write comments, yes all.
Another reason Barney Frank will not be selected, it would be too much of a distraction from the choosing of the Democratic nominee. Question, without looking it up, who was the interim senator during the last special election? I admit, political junkie that I am, I can't remember and that's the type of person the powers that be want for interim senator. A person respected but who casts no shadow even in the brightest of political light.
Stay retired, he is a joke.
You may not like his politics, but Frank is a politician, not a mindless uncompromising ideologue like every tea party member in Congress.
BTW - compromise is not a dirty word, it is the only way things get done in the real world. Refusal to compromise = political gridlock, so don't lay the problem on Frank, save your bile for Norquist and his slavish followers.
:-D
This is fun!
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Mr. Frank may have provided good constituent service during his time for his district but, unless you resided in his district, you probably felt embarrassed by such a pompous and stupid congressman. He and Senator Dodd should be doing time for their involvement in the mortgage meltdown. His arrogance knows no bounds! I thought Mr. Kirk did an excellent job the last time after Senator Kennedy's passing. There are many good qualified Democrats for Governor Patrick to choose from but I sure hope it will not be Hillary Clinton. Residency presidency - it would not surprise me in this state. I am still amazed at how an Indian girl from Oklahoma escaped the reservation to soon become our senior senator! You can't make this stuff up! lol
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he is a disgrce and a bitter, miserable man
Really? How's that?
Only inb MA
just do it
So his qualifications are that he's irascible, egotistical and he makes people squirm. Is that what we want/need in a U.S. senator?
:-D
The GOP hates Barney Frank. Do we really need someone who will add to the divisiveness?
OK, I'm game. What liberal Democrat do you think the GOP will love?
I think you really mean you want a Republican right-wing crazy.
Your justification for Frank is a joke.
:-D
I'd rather see him just run for the office, but OK.
First, if one believes Frank wants this job for a couple of months your insane. Within weeks he'll "find" the desire to "serve" in the senate "overwhelming". He's flat out lying about not running for the office. By all means, put the man who stopped every effort to reign in the Fnmae and Freddie Mac mortgage debacle back into a position where he can influence "responsible government". The man sees no limits to goverment power or spending and he makes Warren look like a wholly bi-partisan politician in comparison. Frank's arrogance and egotism are so boundless even Vennochi has to acknowledge the fact immediately. Frank is as toxic a politician as you'll ever find and to suggest he's fit for any office given his record is to belie the ongoing lie that the Globe routinely foists about "bipartisanship" being some kind of necessary political goal or good. Frank is the definition of liberal partisan. To support him means you have absolutely no expectation of achieving political comity.
:-D
Joan is a fruitcake. Total Fruitcake. WTF is she thinking?
She's thinking differently than you, for sure. Maybe it's you, not her, who's the fruitcake. Or maybe neither of you are fruitcakes. If everybody you disagree with is a fruitcake, though, then you're the one with a problem.
Oops. I fogot!
:-D
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First of all, it's pretty tacky for Congressman Frank to be campaigning on TV and elsewhere to further his cause for yet another few months in Congress. All the problems we've had occurred while he was in the House, does he really think that his being in the Senate for a few months is going to make a difference?
Mr. Frank, your time is up. Have a little grace and humility and step out of the way, as you stepped down voluntarily recently. There are others who can take the job every bit as well as, maybe even better, than you. We need some conciliators, people who will not ridicule ideas that come from others. We need representatives who can get along easily with everyone, not insulters who belittle others and think it's fun and funny. Perhaps because of your being in Washington, D.C., all these years, you have missed the point that compromise is urgently needed, that we're fed up with Congress in general. Time for you to smell the roses.
You'll live happily I hope, not being in Congress, and we'll be very happy to have someone with energy and humilty and brainpower who will do a very good job in the interim appointment.
:-D
Right, just what we need in DC at this moment is another polarizing figure ... NOT!
:-D
Different day, same stuff. He chose to retire. Those actions speak quite clearly and loudly to me. He doesn't deserve to have this temporary appointment. I urge Gov. Patrick to think bigger and broader.
:-D
"But who knows more about the serious economic issues that Congress will take up over the next few months?" Oh so true. Helped cause them and did nothing to solve them.
What if somebody encourages you to drive 70 on the highway, but you get so much pleasure from passing everyone that you keep upping the ante, so that you hit the tree and kill yourself at 120.
Who's fault is it that you're dead?
Frank did encourage loans to lower income people, but he didn't take the applications or decide who was eligible or make the loans or package them up and sell them as superior credit risks to other financial institutions. Every mortgage company made their own decisions and only the especially greedy ones failed.
That's just the highlights of a complex bunch of financial transactions. Slogans are not reality; they're political rhetoric.
correction: Whose, not "Who's"
Everyone got it? Liberals are 'irascible', Conservatives are irratible, uncooperative a**holes. Liberals 'evolve' in their positions, Conservatives are hypocrites who flip-flop.
Politics is a dirty game. Always has been.
Irascible and irritable are not synonyms, and but I would think irritable is a much milder adjective, so I think you blew that point. I've never heard conservatives called generally uncooperative holes, but I'm sure that can apply to anyone in politics.
Nearly everyone who thinks for themselves changes their position on a few things over time (evolves). It relatively rare to change much of your proclaimed beliefs rather suddenly in response to changed political aspirations (flip-flop).
Your post has no basis in reality. Pure political, woe-is-me rhetoric.
VERY BAD IDEA, bad politics and detrimental toward the image of the Democrats in this state. We need to win this seat with Markey, and we don't need to tarnish the election and give Scott Brown something to talk about with Barney Frank coming back for a few months as a mouthy and cantankerous custodian. Barney Frank could only win an election within his district and nowhere else...ever. He is NOT highly regarded statewide and never was. Just as Steve Lynch could only win in his district; he's also NOT well liked statewide and should NOT run against Brown. We're better off having a relatively unknown but highly regarded person to act as a senator for just a few months just as we did after Ted Kennedy died. Someone articulate and pursuasive like the late Gerry Studds comes to mind.
Dude, all you've done is repost from yesterday. How about a suggestion for a live body to be an alternative to Frank, whom you don't like.
And he's still saying he knows who's popular and not popular *all over the state*. Hah.
I don't have the impression that the voters in Frank's district are particularly freaky, so I think Frank could win in a lot of places. On the other hand, I'm not going to claim some supernatural knowledge of what other people think.
When it takes you several hours to write 10 lines, you might as well post them over and over. And with all that time, only a dead person comes to mind? Wow!
Good grief. This is the ABSOLUTE WORST column that Ms. Vennochi has EVER written, may likely be the worst every appearing in this overly liberal newspaper. One can only hope it's a joke - which is what having Frank as Senator would be.
Such overstatement. hah. I'm having a lot of fun today with all the righties going off the deep end. I trust you've read all Ms. Vennochi's columns or the years to reach that conclusion.
:-D
And the Globe shows it's ablsolute DISDAIN not only for the people of Massachusetts, but for the entire country.
How about former labor secretary Robert Reich. He's a pleasant enough individual who has both the intellect and in depth knowledge of the fiscal issues that our President and Congress have to address over the next year.
Say it loud and say it proud!!!!....Go Barney!!!!!