Posted on 11/28/2011 2:57:10 PM PST by Makana
A somewhat bitter U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said today he will not seek re-election in 2012 in a move he said was triggered by redistricting that left him with too many new constituents to serve as a lame-duck legislator.
There are too many constraints, Frank said about his life as a politician and the energy it would take to meet new voters so late in his tenure.
People are skeptical about incumbents, he added. There was also this I dont like raising money.
If I remember history correctly, the reason Frank got elected in the first place was due to redistricting which caused longtime prolife Republican Congresswoman Margaret Heckler to lose her seat.
How many different ways can you say ‘theres no way I can win re-election’?
Barny frank, while evil to the core is not stupid. He sees the writing on the wall. If he stays in another term, he may be held to account for the massive fraud he committed in “bringing down the house” in the housing market. Better to take the money and run.
I say hunt him down and bring him to justice no matter where he flees to. Grand theft and embezzlement are not congressional perks like insider trading has become. Millions of Americans are suffering for his excesses now.
He’s saying that the district is more conservative than it was, and he can’t win re-election. I hope he’s right, but I suspect it’s due more to the fact that he doesn’t want to expose himself publicly given the mood of the electorate.
Already taken. This one's on Mt. Desert Island in Maine -
He’ll run for Rep. on Uranus.
bannana barney
This old, corrupt, fat, Socialist queer has had a serious of much younger “boyfriends.” What gets plugged in where?
Not exactly. He was first elected (barely) in 1980 when Father Drinan retired. He was not a popular figure at the time, even amongst Democrats. When the ‘80s redistricting for 1982 went into effect, it was Frank who was targeted for defeat by the legislature and DINO Gov. Ed King, who approved placing him in a historically GOP-leaning area with Peggy Heckler. They expected Heckler would defeat him in 1982, but Frank turned the tables and beat her (this was right before the economic figures were released showing Reagan’s plans were working, which cost us a number of GOP seats).
According to Frank, his father (Sam Frank) was involved with the Mafia. "[Alfonse Frank] Funzi Tieri, a big-time gangster with the Genovese family, came to my brother David's bar mitzvah, when I was twenty-three," he said.
Sam Frank died at the age of fifty-three, while Barney was an undergraduate at Harvard, and Barney took a year off to help resolve the family's tangled financial affairs. "The Mafia guys were very helpful to me at the time," he said.
Whatever happened in the rest of the old district Barney was always going to win the primary because of the liberals in Newton and Brookline and he was always going to win the general election because New Bedford at the other end of the district would always give a lot of votes to the Democrats.
They weren't necessarily liberals in New Bedford, but they were overwhelmingly Democrats. Now that New Bedford's in another district, there's a chance that the district could be more competitive. Some of the towns along I-495 that are included in the new district and weren't in the old one just might go for a Republican.
I hope hes right, but I suspect its due more to the fact that he doesnt want to expose himself publicly given the mood of the electorate.
Barney's messes were fresher last time and didn't give him any trouble at the polls. The man has no shame, and voters, whether they're yellow dog Democrats in New Bedford or die hard liberals in Newton and Brookline, didn't hold him to any kind of standard.
Barney's a classic example of somebody who came in as an outsider and a reformer and ended up more corrupt than the old machine. He has all the arrogance of an old ward-heeler about power and adds the intellectual arrogance of a Harvard liberal.
I thought “The Teeny Weiner” was named after Frank.
There was also this I dont like raising money.
I thought it was his boyfriend who was the money raiser
“...he doesnt want to expose himself publicly...”
Now that sounds kind of creepy.
Uh, maybe he doesn’t want to face the public in the light of day, but somehow I don’t think he has enough moral sense not to expose himself publicly. LOL
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