His personality alone has been begging for a New Yorker profile for some time, but now that he’s become chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, Barney Frank is practically required writing.
And voila, currently making the political rounds: a new Jeffrey Toobin profile of Frank in the current New Yorker. Required reading, if only for word on the title of a forthcoming Frank biography: Barney Frank: The Story of America’s Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman.
Toobin writes, “Frank’s prescience on the housing crisis should not be overstated” while giving so many examples of the care Frank takes to do so.
It’s Frank’s blind spot. Instead of showing leadership in taking some honest hits for refusing to see what was coming, he pretends he knew all along the scale of what we’ve got now.
So sad; I have loved this guy ever since he inadvertently came out of the closet. But his dishonesty on this latest bit is really limiting his true effectiveness, helping many Rs and neocons get away with their own lies, and slowing our ability to get on a better economic track. Blaugh.
@1, I have to agree with you. I would have liked him to show leadership BEFORE the Freddie and Fanny Mac hit the wall.
But there are few other Dems who should be shown the door; Charlie Rangle is another one.
There’s a pretty decent documentary on Frank called “Let’s Get Frank”… okay not the best title but worth a viewing.
When I entered college, we had to do a writing test to see if we needed remedial classes. The essay question I chose was “are you a member of a minority group and describe how you have been discriminated against”.
I wrote about being left handed and all the labels used through history (sinister, for example, the latin for left, has come to mean evil) to deride us.
Though a southpaw, I am not gay…nor Jewish or a Congressman, so I guess my story will never be told…
No matter how hard the man spins, he can’t escape all those videos of him assuring all within earshot that Fannie and Freddie were just dandy.