Barney Frank

Barney Frank
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 5, 1981
Preceded by	Robert Drinan
Personal details
Political party	Democratic

Barnett "Barney" Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American, liberal/homosexual politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a Democrat and has represented Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 1981. Following the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in the 2006 midterm elections, Frank assumed the chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee.

Early life

Frank was born to a Jewish family in Bayonne, New Jersey and was educated at Harvard College, where he resided in Winthrop House, graduating in 1962. He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a PhD, but left in 1968, before completing that degree, to become the Chief Assistant to Mayor Kevin White of Boston, a position he held for three years. He then served for one year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington.

In 1972, Frank was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, where he served for eight years. During that time, he entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1977.

While in state and local government, Frank taught part time at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Boston University. He published numerous articles on politics and public affairs, and in 1992 he published Speaking Frankly, an essay on the role the Democratic Party should play in the 1990s.

National politics

In 1979, Frank became a member of the Massachusetts Bar, before being elected to Congress in 1980. He was elected to fill the seat of Father Robert Drinan, who had been ordered to leave politics by Pope John Paul II. In 1982, redistricting forced him to run against Republican Margaret Heckler. An underdog, he focused on Heckler's support for President Ronald Reagan—and won by 20 percentage points. Since then, he has been re-elected consistently and easily. Frank is the current chairman on the Financial Services Committee.

1981, Congressional Pictorial Directory - Frank's first term as Congressman

Frank is a prominent figure in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and has been outspoken on many civil rights issues, including gay rights. In 1987, he spoke publicly about his homosexuality for the first time. He said in a 1996 interview: "I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority."

In 1990, the House voted to reprimand Frank when it was revealed that Steve Gobie, a male escort whom Frank had befriended after hiring him through a personal advertisement, claimed to have conducted an escort service from Frank's apartment when he was not at home. Frank had dismissed Gobie earlier that year and reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee after learning of Gobie's activities. After an investigation, the House Ethics Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity. Gobie disputes Frank's account.

The New York Times reported on July 20, 1990 that The House Ethics Committee recommended "that Representative Barney Frank receive a formal reprimand from the House for his relationship with a male prostitute." Attempts to expel or censure Frank failed; instead the House voted 408-18 to reprimand him. This condemnation was not reflected in Frank's district, where he won re-election in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote, and has won by larger margins ever since.

In 1995, then-Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey bashed Frank when he referred to Frank as "Barney Fag" in a press interview. Armey apologized and claimed it was "a slip of the tongue". Frank did not accept the "slip of the tongue" excuse and famously responded, "My mother says that in 59 years since being married to my father, no one had ever called her Elsie Fag."

In 1998, he founded the National Stonewall Democrats, the national gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Democratic organization. In 2004 and again in 2006, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian magazine gave Frank the title of the "brainiest," "funniest," and "most eloquent" member of the House. As of May 2007, Frank is one of two openly gay members of Congress, the other being Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Frank is known for his witty, self-deprecating sense of humor. He once famously quipped that he was unable to complete his review of the Starr Report detailing President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, complaining that it was "too much reading about heterosexual sex."

Frank is also noted for his occasionally caustic remarks about Republicans. In a June, 2007 New England Cable News (NECN) interview, Frank said of Mitt Romney: "The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsover. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics."

Political positions

In Congress, Frank is an ardent supporter of medical marijuana. He was the author of the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act (H.R. 2592), an attempt to stop federal government from intervening states with medical marijuana laws.[3] Frank consistently voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, annually proposed by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), that would prohibit Department of Justice from prosecuting medical marijuana patients.[4]

Frank has also been a critic of aspects of the Federal Reserve system, partnering with some Republicans in this opposition. Frank says that he and Republican Congressman Ron Paul "first bonded because we were both conspicuous nonworshipers at the Temple of the Fed and of the High Priest [Alan] Greenspan.”

In 2006, Frank was one of only three Representatives to oppose the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which restricted protests (notably those of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church) at soldiers' funerals. He opposed the bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate, on civil liberties and constitutional grounds. Frank said of the vote, "I think it’s very likely to be found unconstitutional. It’s true that when you defend civil liberties you are typically defending people who do obnoxious things... You play into their hand when you let them provoke you into overdoing it. I don’t want these thugs to claim America is hypocritical.”

Although considered a strong supporter of Israel, Frank has voiced criticism of Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories and supports a final peace deal along the lines of the Geneva Accord.

Scandal

In 1989 Frank was found to be running a homosexual prostitution house out of his Massachusetts home with known and convicted prostitute, Stephen Gobie. It was also found that Gobie was using a government vehicle in Frank's care for help of the business. The House Ethics committee reprimanded Frank did not find any reason to impeach. Efforts by Representative William Dannemeyer to call for expulsion were halted as well as an effort to cenusure by Republican Whip Newt Gingrich. When asked if he would resign he said he would not. In the next election he ran and won by a 2/3 majority in his district.

The Frank Rule

Frank's blunt stance on outing certain gay Republicans has become well-publicized, dubbed "The Frank Rule" — that it is acceptable to out a closeted gay person, if that person uses their power or notoriety to hurt gay people. The issue became especially relevant during the Mark Foley page scandal of 2006, during which Frank clarified his position on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher:

The fact is, yes, the Republicans do think [homosexuality] should be a crime. And I think there’s a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy ... people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door, and do it themselves.

References

• Johansson, Warren & Percy, William A. Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Harrington Park Press, 1994. pp. 106, 139, 143, 154, 157, 188-9, 228, 231, 235, 291
• Rapp, Linda (2004). "Frank, Barney". glbtq.com. Retrieved 2007-08-16.

External links

• U.S. Congressman Barney Frank official House site

• United States Congress. "Barney Frank (id: f000339)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission - Barney Frank campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues - Barney Frank issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org - Barney Frank campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart - Barney Frank profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia - Barney Frank profile
• Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Barney Frank voting record
• Barney Frank for Congress official campaign site

Articles

• The Republicans' Democracy Disorder, In These Times, February 4, 2006.
• Congressman Barney Frank: A Buzzflash Interview, Buzzflash, July 22, 2003.
• Monumentally Frank: Interview with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank Metro Weekly, March 20, 2003.
• Frank Discusses U.S. Policy, Attitude Regarding Gay Rights, The Hoya, October 19, 2001.
• An Interview with U.S. Representative Barney Frank, keithboykin.com, 1999.