Every once in a while, I wonder why I love Barney Frank so much. Is it the fact he seems like he’d look adorable in a bowtie? Maybe. Is it the fact that his cheek fat makes him look like a 
smiling child cartoon? Kinda. Is it that his voice sounds like a character from Hanna Barbara? Yes, that’s definitely part of it.
But stuff like this is really why:
Rep. Barney Frank charged Monday that a decision by financially strapped insurance giant AIG to pay millions in executive bonuses amounts to “rewarding incompetence.”
Echoing outrage expressed on both sides of the political aisle in the wake of revelations that American International Group will pay roughly $165 million in bonuses, Frank said he believes it’s time to shake up the company.
“These people may have a right to their bonuses. They don’t have a right to their jobs forever,” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
He’s also sarcastic, smart, and (seemingly) principled as hell.
* With regard to anti-choice Republicans, who were advocating cuts in health care programs that benefited women and children, Frank commented “conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal government, life begins at conception and ends at birth.”
* When Frank supported raising the speed limit to 65 m.p.h., he told liberals who disagreed with him that he would “only listen to people on this issue who actually drive 55 m.p.h.”
* “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.”
* “Rather than the boy who cried wolf, George Bush is the reverse. He claims that there is nothing wrong when there is. He’s the boy who cried, ‘Nice doggie.’” — Frank, critiquing President Bush, whom he said has been unable to face the reality of the war in Iraq and the nation’s economy.
(and updates!)
When Senator John McCain tried to avert attention from his sagging poll numbers and trainwreck of a running mate insert himself into the financial bailout negotiations by “suspending his campaign,” Barney Frank called out the raw political stunt:
“It’s the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.”
“McCain is Andy Kaufman in his Mighty Mouse costume – ‘Here I Come to Save the Day,’” Frank said as he left a Thursday morning caucus meeting with House Democrats, saying the Republican presidential candidate’s decision to enter the mix “is not helpful.” “He hasn’t been involved,” Frank said. “He doesn’t know anything about it.”
Frank also mocked the idea that McCain could help with the details, quipping, “I guess if I wanted expertise there, I’d ask Sarah Palin.”
shit is golden), if you both like Beyonce and can feed yourself without incident, you’re way ahead of the curve.
