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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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Hey haven't you people watched the following YouTube video that's 4 minutes long that documents the entire financial meltdown? Watch Barney's speeches, it's obvious that he had a HUGE ROLE in the crisis.
Started in 1979, propeled by bad policy all the way until 2008... Kevin once again prove yourself to be a retard.
Page 58, of Henry Paulson's autobiography on the financial meltdown, "On the Brink":
"Barney's a showman with a quick, impromptu wit. But he's also a pragmatic, disciplined, completely honorable politician; he never once violated a confidence of mine...Right from the start, he indicated he was willing to work with me on GSE reform, hashing out the issues of portfolio limits and regulation. Even as we made progress, I ran into opposition inside the adminstration, leading to one of the worst meetings I would ever have at the White House...We didn't get a bill passed in the lame duck session, but Barney made good on his promise to honor the agreements we'd reached after the new Congress came in the following year."
Page 184, from Shelia Bair's new book, "Bull By the Horns":
"I've always liked and respected Barney Frank. He's been repeatedly bashed for his support of Fannie and Freddie, and he's acknowledged making mistakes on GSE policy, but I think the criticisms have been overblown. Overall, Frank's legislative record has been impressive, and he's taken some courageous positions over the years. For instance, he was one of the few in Congress brave eough to take on Wall Street and mortgage brokers by pushing for strong national lending standards in the early 2000s. He is the preeminient expert in Congress on financial policy, and notwithstanding his liberal reputation, I've always found him to be pretty middle of the road."
And, on page 50:
"In 2005, Congressman Barney Frank and Spencer Bachus (R-Al) tried to put together a bipartisan effort to establish national lending standards. However, the effort met stiff opposition from the industry, which complained to the Republican leadership. Bachus was forced to stop negotiating with Frank under pressure from the House GOP leadership."
Of course, if you can blame it all on Barney, you can avoid confronting the real reasons for the meltdown.
Here is another perspective of the causes of the Housing Bubble.
http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/jbi/volume8/journals/SummaryofthePrimaryCauseoftheHousingBubble.pdf
Not a bad summary...and worth the read. Thanks for the link. And, I didn't read Barney's name once. Claiming that Barney wasn't the principal reason for the meltdown is not the same thing as saying the Clinton Administration and Democrats played no role in setting up the conditions for the meltdown.
I think the author is a little light on the international aspects. He gets the Bernanke explanation of "Asian savings," but doesn't expand on that to explain Basel II and the tremondous competition in Western financial institutions for those savings, using basically "variations on the theme" of the securitization of real estate loans.
And, to my knowledge, no one other than myself (Democrats included) have explored the connection between the Bush Administration's lack of effective action to deal with the housing bubble (or the Fed's) and their need for economic stimulus, to GDP growth, leading to increased revenue to cover the increases of a badly underestimated cost of fighting two long wars - i.e. as long as people were making money and paying their taxes (albeit at a reduced rate), it was convenient to ignore the growing danger of the bubble.
Was it a conspiracy or a perfect storm? That book has yet to be written. Probably a bit of the former and a lot of the latter.
P.S. On the other Forbes article, Wallison is on the extreme right on the "causes of the meltdown" spectrum. But, marginally within the sphere of respectability (along with several others, including Sowell, Norberg, and others).
Wallison, as you probably know, served on the "National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States," which filed three basic final reports: The Report of the Committee's Democratic Appointees; the Report of the Committee's Republican Appointees; and the Report of Wallison. The first two reports basically agreed that the CRA was not either a cause at all or a primary cause to the meltdown...a finding to which Wallison took exception.
Watch this
One more quote. This one from Johan Norberg's "Financial Fiasco." Norberg is a senior fellow at the CATO Institute, not exactly a raving left-wing organization.
Page 41:
"Even though the Bush administration had criticized Fannie and Freddie for their reckless risk taking, it inexplicably helped drive them further down that road by decreeing in October 2004, at the height of the lending craze, a drastic increase in their targets for the number of mortgages to low-income earners."
But, it isn't inexplicable if you add two factors...one, the mundane need for campaign funds for the 2004 election (Ameriquest CEO amd founder Roland Arnall was Bush's largest single contributor and virtually ALL of the Wall Street banks subsequently bailed out, were in the Bush top twenty organizational contributors, while collectively contributing to Bush over Kerry by a 2 to 1 margin) and two, the real need for economic stimulus - no matter how unstable or fleetling - to produce tax revenue to pay for the on-going wars.
In sum, the housing bubble was the best economic thing the Bush administration had going, and the bubble produced a rise in government revenue and low unemployment, which combined with increased national debt, "seemed" to invaidate an old economic principle: don't cut taxes and then go to war; if the war is necessary, repeal the tax cuts and pay for the wars. Historically, far more nations have been thrown into bankruptcy by trying to fight wars they could not afford than by overspending on social programs.
Oh HELL NO!
It seems to be if you were actually running an underground gay brothel out of your home with your boyfriend IN CHARGE of it....Hmmm. (and you were publicly busted for it?) (and they let you keep your job?)
HELL NO
What was he charged with?
Not sure but I think it was petty pud pounding without a permit.......... the same thing congress is doing now.
Patrick Duval.....please be SMART about this and forget Barney Frank's name...
His name is Duval Patrick, dummy.
OMG - I am so confused that I really don't know which crook to vote for any more. A lot of these butt ugly a$$wipe$ even make her royal heinie, the re-elected congressbroad, Ms. porkin' her way to the top again, Bachmann, look good. WAFJ
Barney has to go back. Look at all the fresh meat that got elected. A pervert's dream. Hey squatting buffalo, does your post mean you have the hots for the botox queen?
You bet riverman - she's the hottest box of clay that I've seen sinse they invented playdough. She is so full of hot air that you would never have to blow her up before or after dinner.
Not in my STATE !!!
BIGGEST LOSER !!!!!!
Hopefully, when pigs fly.
I don't give a shyte about the Frank or his shyte sucking sexual habits. What I do want to know is why is lib-central not running any articles about the other conceited, self-serving Democrat in the news at other site, Al Gore? He sells a worthless cable station for hundreds of millions of dollars to Al Jazeera so they can foment unrest and civil war here like they did in the Middle East with the help of King Hussein. And why did he make sure the deal went through before the huge tax increases went into effect? Doesn't this greedy former politician, who has made hundreds of millions because of his former political offices, believe in paying his "fair share"? Come on, King Hussein and all you libtards. Where's the outrage? Heck, where's the story? What a bunch of self-serving, hypocritical, liberal losers.
I like Barney Frank, he may not be perfect but he sounds honest when he speaks.
and he may like you....If you are a cute fella....
Oh NO! Not again. Barney Frank was one of the idiots responsible for the financial mess we found ourselves in and we certainly don't need any more of his help.
He is the perfect democrat. He should be appointed to this seat. He has accomplished so much in his political career. The only problem is when he talks it sounds like he has marbles in his mouth. With an interpreter he would be a breeze to talk with.
I love this guy and hope he does well in Swift Boat Skipper Kerry's seat. I missed serving with John Kerry in Nam. It would have been a great experience. Frank is an obvious choice for the job.
It's not marbles he has in his mouth. ;)
And yes, you are right, he is the perfect Democrat, but I don't think that is something to very proud of.
Too bad hes not interested in becoming straight like normal people are. What a fudge packer!
I don't know why everyone is complaining about Barney Frank. How many of you re-elected the same do nothing Congressman from your district? You don't seem to want Washington to change nor be accountable when you continue to vote for the same people all the time.
I wounder what the republican log cabin people will say about this...at camp would it be like say..let me rub this across your face...huh tea nuts
Elvis,
We will wonder if you will ever learn to spell the word " wonder ". It is spelled W O N D E R, not wounder.
That's right, it's my turn to be the " Grammar Nazi ".
sorry log cabin man.my bad
I was thinking of a naner sanwich
Dude, I'm just trolling, trying to see who's panties I can get up in bunch. No harm intended by the crap I write, but I do have a question. What is a " log cabin man "?
rich homo republicans ..there party name is the log cabin party
Oh, Okay. Guess I'm glad I didn't know what it meant nor being associated with them. I wouldn't mind the " rich " part though. There is no way I'll ever be rich on military retirement benefits.
he could become a homo senator in Louisiana...they dress queer once a year..at there parade's
looks like there will be a good old fashion beat off...barney will win ..you tea nuts
This makes perfect sense. Promote the person who was responsible for the country's housing problem. While you are at it, consider Larry Summers and Robert Rubin to oversee the SEC.
lets start where it started..Enron..the dumb azz in charge
that's what happens when you kill regulations??
I have a song for you tea nuts in your imagination land....one for the money..two for the show..3 to get ready go dummies go..yeah yeah yeah...thank you thank you very much curl lip
Bush was the boss...when enron was screwing the hell out of Americans with high utilitie bills...bush did nothing but say let the market fix itself...what kind of damn leader does that kind of @!$%#..he should have fix that s-it..first..because the market was testing the dumb azz..I'm sorry but Bush was our dumb azz President.he said the same thing a few months before he left office the market will fix itself....how with no regulation???
OK. Let's give Barney the chance to give us a "boner" from each "house" and each party. Oh, yeah.
Bonny Fwank wood be jusht wike John Kewee as a theniter..
its amazing this guy doesnt have full blown aids yet. the wonders of 21st century medicine.
Now that we are 30+ years into the AIDS epidemic, it's amazing that stupid azzholes like you still don't have a clue.