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Subscribe to RSSAides to the newly retired Rep. Barney Frank say the congressman definitely wants to be appointed by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as a caretaker senator. The opening would occur when John Kerry moves to the State Department pending his confirmation as the next secretary.
Frank, who is 72, has said he looked forward to life after Congress and "not having to answer the phone." But just one day after his 16 years in Congress ended, Frank has changed his mind citing the Senate's expected focus on fiscal issues, where Frank could use his expertise as the former top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. A caretaker appointment would be short-term, just for a few months until the special election is set.
Fmr. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., proves there's no rest for the recently retired. When asked by Joe Scarborough if he would consider being future Sen. Barney Frank, Frank responded by saying he's spoken with the Mass. Governor Deval Patrick about being appointed temporarily.
Frank told "Morning Joe," "A few weeks ago said, I said I wasn't interested. It was kind of like, you're about to graduate and they said, you've got to go to summer school. But that [fiscal cliff] deal now means that February, March, and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history."
When Sen. Kennedy died in 2009, the governor chose long time Kennedy aide and former Democratic National Committee chair Paul Kirk to serve in the interim before Scott Brown won the seat. Aides say they cannot comment this morning on whether Frank has heard back from Gov. Patrick.
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New "job" for Barney...that's too easy to play off of. If the local voters in his district are that plain STUPID enough to put a guy who was one of the KEY players who sunk the housing industry into depths of despair...well those voters (name recognition sheeple) deserve what they get, again. Unbelievable.
Try and keep a stiff upper lip Barney...no matter what you are performing.
The Beev...voters have nothing to do with it. If it happens he will be appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick. Did you read the article? Do you have any idea how politics work?
Frank is the single most reason that we had a housing crisis, so no to him being a seat warmer. But knowing how stupid politicians are, he will get it.
He should just go away. This guy was one of the main culprits in effing the housing market and quite frankly should be in jail.
Real smart! Turn the freak loose so he can mess up the system some more!
We finally got rid of that horse's butt and now he wants to be a senator? I would like to see an honest broker in there like Scott Brown....he was terrific and was unseated by that flake who claims she started Occupy Wall Street...she is a nut and destructive. He is normal and works hard for the middle class people. Frank and Dodd contributed to the meltdown with Fanny and Freddie....those idiots wreaked havoc on our financial system and Wall Street. We don't want him back.
You can't possibly be serious... LOL!!!!
Frank and Dodd, made the Wall St. investment Banks leverage themselves at rates of more than 30 - 1 ???
You're not even bright enough to be entertaining..
Scott Brown is a vapid moron. Warren never claimed she started OWS, but she has done wonders to help consumers. She has real substance, while he's nothing but an aging frat boy.
Jennifer, New York
From your name, I am guessing you are not from Massachusetts. I am, and I love Barney Frank. When I heard him say he'd turn it down if offered I was disappointed. I find this to be good news. If you are not from MA you don't get to have an opinion. I didn't go to Ohio and try to talk people out of voting for Boehner.
Come on!!!!!! Not another fag. We have too many fags/queers/homos/dikes in the lower House already and now he wants to come back and be a Senator so he can spread his cheeks. Barney, just go away or take a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle. To many fags in government already. Hopefully, this summer the High Court will rule against being a fag and outlaw fags as unconstutional. Just like the Pope did last week. Being a fag is unsanitary because they spred AIDS and it's unconstitutional because they don't pay a poll tax for being gay.
Being gay is illegal in Iran
Wasn't it Rick Santorum who said that we don't need contraceptives because there is the baby hole and the practice hole?
You're kidding, right? I mean nobody is really that stupid much less in a public forum.....
dmill...Wow, I don't even know how to respond to that. Maybe the SCOTUS will outlaw being a moron as unconstitutional. Makes about as much sense as your idea.
I am ENJOYING the freak out by those GOP/TPers; EVEN MORE SO, if Governor Deval Patrick ACTUALLY goes through, and appoints Barney Frank to the U.S. Senate- EITHER PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILLY.
Oh I SOOOooo think we could use his expertise as the former top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. The guy that started all this financial mess. Yea it takes a guy like him to figure it all out and really get America back on track again.
Gag
Funny how the right wing crazies give Obama powers that he doesn't have and that no president has ever had. And give Barney Frank who was 1 out of 435 in the house enough power to start the financial mess. Maybe Obama and Frank did come here as babies from the planet Krypton.
I would prefer someone younger. Frank has served his state and the country and it it time he retired.
Actually it may be a great tactic. Get Barney to support there positions, maybe they will vote against themselves, maybe we can still get this Country back on track. No, bad thought. You can't change stupid.
I don't care if Taxachussetts wants this lump...but I don't!
Sure, why not, if nothing else he is always good for a laugh. Plus he fits right in with other miss-fit democrats in office.
Excellent choice. Anything to PO the Right Wingnuts and Tea Baggers.
Frank had little to do with the housing crisis. Republicans controlled the House from 1994 through 2006. The housing boom began to collapse in 2006, with the fall of real estate prices, and the failure of subprime loans, primarily among those last loans made (which reflected falling lending standards).
Frank didn't take over his Committee Chairmanship until January 2007. By that time, most of the toxic loans had already been made, although they were traded back and forth, as the financial institutions slowly grew aware of what was happening and began playing "hot potato."
And, who can forget the Fed and Administration "experts" who were more than willing to assure us (and Congress) that the real estate set-back was " a mere correction in the market" and that the "fundamentals are sound?"
Those denials...of the recession, which began in December 2007, made it that much more severe in the Fall of 2008, with the collapse of the GSEs and Lehman Brothers, the market drop and the subsequent TARP.
Stoned...Still in denial. I suspect that being gay and a socialist that helped bring the economic disaster must be attributes that you admire the most. All else is excused.
At least Bush was reading to elementary school kids. Or were the kids reading to him?
There is nothing to "admire" or "condemn" in either. What anyone's sexual orientation is, is none of my business. "Socialism" is a matter of definition. Most advanced industrial or post-industrial societies/economies are "socialistic" to one extent or the other, in terms of some type of social security and universal health care.
They have generally been positive contributors to democratic-capitalism in creating a more equitable economic system, as perceived by the majority of a free electorate. Those programs have brought a generalized and wide-spread acceptance of capitalism itself, and allowed shared economic growth. Stop sharing that growth and voters will use the power of the ballot to restore whatever they consider a "fair balance."
A large and prosperous middle class has made our past economic success possible. If you fail to understand that and persist in insisting that success has been due to a small percentage of Masters of the Universe, ala Ayn Rand, you will destroy that which you profess you want to preserve.
Stop being dumb and wake up to reality.
This old fellow is so very grateful that the government "gives" me SS and health benefits! And I only had to pay into it for forty nine years.
Thanks largely to the success of both programs, you will probably take more out than you put in...that's the basic problem.
If I live to eighty seven or so......Actuarial tables say probably not. So the monies I paid into FICA and Medicare went into the general fund since Reagan, if in a trust fund as intended when enacted, (as my employee pension is) how would that have worked out? Thing is, a politician around a source of money WILL find a way to piss it away! But what do I know, I'm just an old computer guy
I'm sure Barney has "eyed" many a "seat" over the years .......
Barney would be a great choice! He can be let loose on the Republicons to keep them honest during the negotiations. I say let the bulldog lose on the Republicons!
bulldog?? He is a dumbass!
Barney Frank is a disaster in every way that there is. He has responsibility for the economic mess that we are in and he chose to lie and thumb his nose at anyone or anything that would prevent or lessen that disaster. Let us not forget that as a government official, he allowed his gay boyfriend prostitute to operate a prostitution ring out of his home...and then put him on the government payroll in a phony job. There is no good upside to Barney Frank. He is openly gay and as socialist as you can get and those seem to be the attributes that the left admires. Everything else is excused away...and of course they can all blame Bush for all the crap that Frank brought to us.
And will, as long as you refuse to acknowledge the Bush economic errors.
One,. $170,000 a year minority party Rep. from one state brought us the largest economic downturn, since the Great Depression???
You teapublican rubes are simply detached from reality...
Which is one reason you're fun to laugh at..
Thanks...
Stoned...I do acknowledge that Bush was not really a conservative...and should have fought the dems in their efforts to break the budget...as I have always thought....I would have thought that liberal dems would not have had such crazed hate for Bush being that he had those liberal tendencies....But you know how liberals are with their hate....and lack of commonsense. "Bush's economic errors" as you state were nothing compared with the dems wholesale brankruptcy producing economic scheme of yearly spending 142% of income...and no investment in real income producing programs.
k1200....I cannot think of one good deed or intelligent aspect of Barney Franks career that was a success and he argued long after the fact that Fanny and Freddy were just fine and to continue the craziness. This is a man who had no positive attributes....other than being publicly gay(which is all that counts for liberals apperently). Yea keep that name calling(teapublican) crap going since it is soooo intelligent and a brilliant answer to all the stupid mistakes that the left is making. Just keep on laughing...and people will keep staring at you...and avoiding you.
Oh! Barney I remember him, isn't he the one who demanded banks and lending institutes give housing loans to people who could not afford them. And then when everything crashed Obama took my money and bailed them out. That Barney. Yes, he would fit in nicely with the dem. turds in Washington.
I thought we were done laughing at teapublicans with respect to the housing crash, and the resultant recession..
Apparently, I was mistaken.. LOL!!
Thanks guys... It's appreciated..
At least they aren't blaming the housing crash on Susan Rice. Maybe next week.
Ya know...
At this point,.. nothing would surprise me....
Barney, how about you just go home and leave DC all together..PLEASE!!
And dont loiter at any rest area mens rooms on the way.
I would be VERY, VERY NERVOUS if Bawney was eyeing MY seat!
MRW.. OH HAHAHA! A joke about him being gay! Because that's hilarious. And of course he would "want" you because you're irresistible to everyone. I like how you even got in a barb about his MA accent. You are really funny. You should be on the Tonight Show with all these other jokesters.
I thought that this un-American piece of @!$%# was gone!!! Wasn't ruining the housing market enough damage for this cretin?
Link: Democrats were WARNED of Financial crisis and did NOTHING
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Brings a whole new meaning to "putting pork in the Bill"...
No disrespect to Bill or that there's anything wrong with that.
I think Barney Frank would be a great choice to fill in if/when Kerry goes to State.
I'd also be happy to vote for him if/when he runs!!!
If you're not being sarcastic (hard to tell online), thank you sea2see. I have always admired Barney Frank and hope he gets the nod. And I'm a MA voter, so what I believe actually counts.
Check your spelling. Its Knob,and he has been getting them for years.
Just what the Senate needs, his expertise on how to crash the economy.