POSTED BY ORHAN
Interviewer: You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed?
Barney Frank: No.
Interviewer: Why not?
Barney Frank: Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?
Interviewer: I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it.
Barney Frank: Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion?
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
Brilliant. Yes, I’ll miss Barney. Although I suspect we will be seeing quite a bit of him on TV news.
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I think you’re right – he’ll have more time and be less constrained. I’ve already noticed he’s on more than he used to be – which surprisingly, we not very often at all.
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When Frank asked if the interviewer though he lied to people the interviewer should have said, “Yes. Of course. There’s no doubt of that.”
But the entire interview was largely stupid anyway and Frank gave a good answer to a stupid question.
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Barney Frank says what he thinks and what he believes. He does it with humor and bare bones honesty. He always has. And that is why he will be missed in the House of Representatives where more and more, folks are walking and talking in lock-step with the folks who are walking us to the edge of the cliff.
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We’re trying to fix that by ripping the Democrats – I assume that’s who you’re talking about as they’re the clear and present danger to America – out of politics completely.
Think of it as enforcing the Separation of Liberal and State. 😆
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It would be so much better for the opposition if only there were no sane — Democratic — voices of reason. Then we’d just have those warm and fuzzy guys who want to make sure Granny starves, that poor people breed more poor people so that the haves can watch them starve.
What a great idea. I think you’re on to something.
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At least you’re honest about being an old-school eugenicist. Can’t have those poor people having children now, can we?
Of course, if we’re all expected to pay for their ever increasing entitlements, you’re right. It’s unsustainable.
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And so the reasoning behind defunding Planned Parenthood is, well, illogical, Mr. Spock. It does not compute, Will Robinson. It’s stupid, Republicans.
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Amen jonolan!
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Oh dear we shall miss him. His wit and sharp mind and instincts for doing the right thing are in such short supply in the Congress.
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Just wonderful. Who was the boob doing the interview?
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There’s a link – it’s from the NY Times Magazine.
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I love this! I watched him slice and dice Tony Perkins on The Chris Matthews Show the other day and it made me think how much I’ll miss him. He answers questions with a clarity, intelligence, and directness that few politicians have. I don’t even want to think about the House Financial Services Committee without him.
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I saw that too marylee – it was beautiful. As for Financial Services . . . without Barney’s aggressive nature . . . bad.
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Ah Barney, how could you leave us. A light in the darkness.
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Yes we will all miss Barney the gambler . 9/25/03 . ” I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC ( Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ) and the OTS ( Office of Thrift Supervision ) . I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing . “
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And he was TOTALLY ALONE in wanted to house the poor. Totally.
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It wasn’t “housing the poor;” it was getting them loans that they couldn’t properly qualify for in order to buy houses. That’s not the same thing at all.
And Frank’s attitude was the same as his predecessors and led to the development of mortage back securities in order to use credit default swaps – sort of like mortgage insurance for lenders, but tradeable – which, in turn led to the crash of 07-08.
No, Frank didn’t cause it, but he had the same attitude and beliefs of those that set us down that path to ruin.
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[the same attitude and beliefs of those that set us down that path to ruin] Same? Except the money I guess. Barney didn’t get any hundreds of miillions in bonuses or tens of millons in fees.
Bankers gave mortgages by the hundreds of thousands to people who did not qualify in any way . . . and then they sold the damn things and they did it because they knew that the taxpayer stood behind them as insurers.
And that is malfeasance, that is criminal. And that is not the same
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Most likely Frank was paid handsomely for his support and for funneling money to certain financial entities. That’s not proven of course, but it’s the normal course of events for politicians on the House Financial Services Committee.
As for what the banks did – They did what they were told to do by the government. First there was the CRA, then the DoJ threatened to bring charges against banks that didn’t meet some sort of racial lending quota, and then the feds changed the laws to actively encourage the finance industry, especially banks, to invest in mortgage-backed securities.
None of that is, by the way, criminal in and of itself. Wrong and stupid, but not criminal.
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So is the ‘financial services’ industry off the hook here? No blame is to attach to those who’ve 1))admitted they had no idea what their products actually were, but who sold htem anyway because 2) the fees were fantastic?
I’d like to see a shred, just a shred, of evidence that Frank was paid anything. A shred.
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You might want to look up how much and under what circumstances Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave Frank campaign donations, Moe – as a start.
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Okay. From 1989 – 2008, Frannie/Freddie contributed to 354 congress critters. Barney got $42,000 over those 19 years. The whole list is here:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
I guess that proves he was bought off.
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Prove? No. It’s a bit of conflict of interest in his particular case though, don;t you think? And I’m fairly sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He was a career politician after all and corruption and venality is a bipartisan failing.
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Damn, your last commnet just got caught up in the spam filter again even tho I’ve marked you ‘not spam’ before.
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Don’t worry about it. The people at WordPress / Akismet/ Automattic seem to be censoring Conservatives a bit. I keep getting hit with some sort of Spam “override” command via Akismet that sends my comments to spam gulag, sometimes in the middle of a conversation.
It’s happening to some others as well.
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You said that last time. Color me skeptical – how can you know such a thing anyway? Anecdotally?
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I base it the communications with their support people – quite rude btw – which were not fruitful and boiled down to “you deserve it. Don’t comment anymore.”
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Ms. Holland ,
I have no doubt some of his intentions were good . The pity is that his business judgement did not match the amount of power he acquired .
” Hell is paved with good intention, not with bad ones. All men mean well. ”
George Bernard Shaw
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And again . . . he was the ONLY ONE who was not perfect in all aspects? And I do’nt want congress critters to have ‘business’ judgement. Businesses are for-profit and operate by entirely different rules than government. I want those guys to fight for the people.
I’m sorry you missed the point of the post (yet again!) – it was about how delightfully Barney put an ignorant interviewer in his place. I love his wit.
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Ms. Holland,
Oh, , I did not miss your point . The man can talk well enough. And you should want ” Congress Critters “, cute term, to know just a tad about business, since they pass laws on $ Trillions .
This is the first time in my memory anyone on your side of the great divide ever admited that Barney the Critter was not perfect .
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Alan, I don’t have a ‘side’. I’m just a liberal American.
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Ms. Holland ,
If I may intrude on your talk with Jonolan . There are more things than campaign contributions which can influence a politician to protect agencies such as the GSEs.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html
Please note the quote from President Bill Clinton at the very end of the story .
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