Homo Saves Economy!
I was walking around on Capitol Hill last Thursday morning when a familiar figure popped out of car… Congressman Barney Frank. He looked very disheveled. His hair was all over the place, his shirt wasn’t fully tucked in, and several of the buttons around his stomach were unbuttoned. I smiled to myself as he walked past; going completely unnoticed by the people I was with and several others on the sidewalk. Who would suspect that this was the man saving our economy?
If you’re not sure who Barney Frank is, you’ve been living under a heterosexual rock. Frank is a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts. He’s been in the House since 1981, and currently serves as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Oh yeah, and he’s totally gay. And not just Larry Craig gay, he’s an out I’m here and I’m queer gay.
Given that Democrats are currently in the majority in the House and Senate, Frank, along with his Senate colleague Chris Dodd (Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee) are the point guys for the current bailout bill. What I find so refreshing about Frank is that unlike so many of the hacks currently in Congress, Frank actually knows what the fuck he’s talking about. Watching Hardball last night, I almost spit out my California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza “For One” (btw you must try this stuff, it’s fantastic) when I heard former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay say that even he thought Frank was one of the few people on the Hill who understood the economic crisis.
Frank has also been telling it like it is when it comes to all the latest political crap. First, there was the whole John McCain “I’m suspending my campaign because I’m desperate to get the media to notice me” thing. Here was Frank’s response: “He’s been irrelevant to the process… I was afraid that his dropping in here, like Andy Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse—’here I am to save the day’—I thought that would slow things down. I didn’t see any sign of our Republican colleagues paying any attention to him whatsoever.” So there he was calling McCain’s strategy what it was, political theatre, and then going on to say that even when ole’ Walnuts did show up, nobody, not even the members of his own party, gave a damn. Then it was Frank again who called the Republicans on their pathetic claim that they killed Monday’s bailout bill because Nancy Pelosi gave a partisan speech saying that Republicans were the ones who got us into this mess in the first place. Frank’s response: “Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country.” Yay for Barney!
Anywho, I just wanted to say how proud I am of our gay little Barney. We’ve only got two (openly) gays in Congress – Frank and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) – so we might as well salute them when they kick ass.
3 comments:
He looked very disheveled. His hair was all over the place, his shirt wasn’t fully tucked in, and several of the buttons around his stomach were unbuttoned.
I'm glad Barney is not a victim of the "perfect gay" syndrome. I admire him for having priorities and more important things to worry about than his hair.
We are fortunate to have a dedicated statesman like Barney Frank.
Thanks, Barney for the bailout for billionaires (even though it failed in the House -- so far)! Also, does anyone remember that time Barney sold out trans folks in the ENDA debate? So much for community. I'm from Frank's district and a lot of folks there are getting more and more disappointed that Frank is seeming less and less progressive.
Opposition to the bailout isn't tantamount to denial that there is a financial crisis. It's perfectly possible simultaneously to recognize that we have a serious crisis in the credit market and still oppose the bailout. It's also possible to acknowledge a crisis in the credit market while questioning whether a rejection of this specific plan would spawn a global meltdown and catapult us into the Second Great Depression.
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