10 Items on The Barney Frank Rap Sheet

1. This week, instead of answering a student’s question at Harvard, Frank lashed out at a “right wing conspiracy” because he dared ask Rep. Frank if he had anything to do with the financial crisis.

2. When the financial crisis of 2008 first hit the news, Barney Frank self righteously proclaimed the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac meltdown was a result of 12 years of Republican rule when they refused to reform the two entities.

3. In 2003 when the Bush Administration asked for more oversight for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Frank, ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, vehemently defend both institutions as being completely sound and in no need of investigation. He also insisted that if there were problems, the federal government had no obligation to bail them out.

4. During the nineties Barney Frank frequently pressed for fewer restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, a action now considered a primary cause of the collapse of the housing market. In fact, he blocked Republican attempts to exercise more control over the agencies’ policies.

5. During the nineties his live in partner was Herb Moses, a Fannie Mae executive who also pressed for fewer restrictions. But both Moses and Frank assured skeptical Republicans that there was no conflict of interest just because one partner happened to make laws that controlled the other partner’s place of employment.

6. In 1989 he was involved in a major scandal when it was discovered that his live-in partner was running a gay prostitution business from Frank’s home.

7. Although the House conducted an investigation of the “Call Boy” charges, Frank was merely reprimanded because he claimed to not know of the business. Fellow Democrats helped paint him as a victim who had merely tried to help another human being by giving him a place to live.

8. Interestingly enough, the media paid far less attention to this situation than to Mark Foley’s emails to former pages. Mark Foley was drummed out of office in disgrace. Barney Frank received a whopping 66% of the vote in his district during the next election.


9. He has voted against Partial Birth Abortion, against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and against the criminalization of transporting minors across state lines for abortions by non family members.

10. In 1987 he “outed” himself by voluntarily admitting to being a homosexual. He had first won his Congressional seat in 1980, running of the slogan, “Neatness Isn’t Everything.”

You need to judge all future Barney Frank actions in light of his past, especially when the mass media seems to have collective amnesia about anything that happened two weeks ago.