Don’t miss our editorial on his overdue departure from Congress.
If I may, I’d like to offer a more basic critique of the man. He’s a bully. The liberal establishment has a hard time seeing liberal bullies, I think because they see bullying as a conservative trait for some reason. It’s not. There are bullies across the ideological spectrum.
Still, that Barney Frank is a bully shouldn’t surprise anyone who subscribes to the most conventional explanations for why bullies are the way they are. Growing up a very smart gay Jewish kid with a lisp in Bayonne, New Jersey seems like a recipe for insecurity straight out of a sitcom script. It also helps to explain why Barney Frank can be so funny. He’s learned to channel his browbeating skills for political purposes, to be sure. And presumably, given his success in life he’s lost some of his insecurities. But you can still see it in the man. It’s closely tied to other character traits — arrogance, impatience, etc. But there’s still a distinct domineering, inquisitorial, nastiness to him, a bitter edge, that delights in the applause of the crowd as he torments his victims. As with all bullies, he rationalizes his behavior by telling himself that the victims deserve it and the applause is for his courage. But you can tell from that occasional smile at the discomfiture of his targets, that there’s something more primal at work.
The editorial had it right: Frank is an embarrassment and the worst kind of idiot - one with power and an expansive sense of entitlement. Good widdance, Elmer Fudd.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNew Bogeyman Needed:
it will be pretty tough for this paper, along with its co-conspirators on the far right, Fox & the WSJ, now that they're losing their favorite whipping boy
They must go and find a new villain, otherwise they'll no longer be able to feed the right-wing self-victimization.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNever fear we still have Debbie Washerwoman Schultz to vilify now that Bawney, Weiner and that horrible bag of wind in the Orlando area - nice - I've forgotten his name :>)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI guess that thought is a comfort to you. The rest of us are comforted with the knowledge that one of the most destructive forces in modern politics has finally stepped down. Now if he could only be maneuvered into stepping into a prison cell where he belongs as well. It would be the only way to stop his destructive influence on everything in his path. He's a creepy guy. Equally creepy are those who feel compelled to defend him in some way. Blech.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo doubt we'll get an explanation of why the same type of bullying and nastiness from Tom DeLay was smart politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell said, Jonah. The Barney Frank most reasonable people see is not the Barney Frank he and his like-minded colleagues see. For Mr. Frank, the strategy of "win at any cost" has been very effective and accusing those he disagrees with of moral and criminal offenses is just part of the job he believes he was elected to perform. And he has never been deterred by the truth, a great asset for a career politician who is not personally appealing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJenna, your critique of Mr. Frank could just as easily apply to Tom DeLay. You didn't approve of Mr. Delay's win at any cost tactics, did you?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusehow about some examples of Delay behaving as badly as Frank ? until then ... No, they can't be just as easily applied to Delay ...
nice try to deflect though ... How does it feel to defend a sputtering gasbag like Frank ? How many showers does it take to feel human again ?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The hammer" didn't use bullying tactics? Really?
What about his conviction for money laundering?
My point, since you seem to have missed it, is that the indignance of Mr. Goldberg and other commenters to this post is hypocrisy if they didn't call out Delay for the same thing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey're not equivalent just because you say they are.
And even if it is "hypocrisy," it doesn't exonerate Frank, which is what everyone's trying to explain to you.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDavidJ: it's a subtle point, but I'll give it a last try with you: I'm not defending any of Frank's tactics, just pointing out to the critics here that they're not the sole province of the left. DeLay is a prime example.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, I think it's more likely that you realize it's failure of a point, so now you're trying to characterize it as something else -- and in so doing, you're describing yourself as being even MORE petty (by bringing up something 100% irrelevant to the point) than you would have been if you just left it as a defense of Frank.
But I'll say a third time -- hyprocrite, de-hypocritize thyself. Where are your criticisms of the Left?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI reject your premise. Goldberg, Jenna, or conservatives in general are not obliged to be ombudsmen policing the right before they are allowed to criticize the left.
Now, if you could demonstrate that Jenna had defended DeLay's tactics previously, the hypocrisy charge might have some merit.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore than that, when does Kevin Moriarity EVER criticize ANY Democrat 'round these parts?
Check that out -- Kevin is his own kind of hypocrite.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKevin - This seems to have become the standard leftist retort - "Well, it's okay, you're just as bad!"
So pathetic.
And of course, you ignore the fact that Tom Delay is facing prison time for his activities after being forced to resign. Barney Frank, meanwhile, is walking off into the sunset, looking forward to some six-figure K St. consulting gig, doubtlessly to be embraced as a liberal lion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the most frustrating thing about liberals. You bring up anything and they come up with some line about republicans do it too. Corruption in a D administration is just fine because they are sure it happened in an R administration they are sure there is something that make Solyndra and every other D scandal OK.
Take Solyndra. This is a huge scandal, but liberals are telling themselves and everyone else that they are sure Republicans did it too. Even if they can't name a similar scandal or if they have to make it up or if they have to go back 50 years to come up with something.
Any thoughts on how to respond to these avoidance tactics would be much appreciated. I feel like I am slamming my head against a wall.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse1. If the Republican did behave badly, admit it, and insist that you don't condone it, as when many conservative voters sat on their hands in 2006. Then ask them what they're going to do about their Democrat bad boy.
2. Call them on it. Ask them what they really know and where they got their information. 95% of the time it is poorly sourced (or unsourced) innuendo, and just a little bit of digging will prove it. If they "just know it" but they can't prove it, point out that their assertion is a prejudice, and not a fact. They'll protest, but their argument will get demonstrably thinner and more child-like. They'll know that they don't know what they're talking about, even if they won't admit it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJakeTaylor: You missed the point entirely. If the right is going to start parsing the sins of the left, it should have the integrity to admit the same with respect to its side. Mr. Goldberg's post, and the comments thus far, suggest, disingenuously, that only Dems are capable of bullying tactics.
Are you suggesting that Mr. Frank committed crimes like Mr. DeLay? If so, what are they?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs I said below, Kevin, you are quite guilty of this yourself. Show me all your criticisms of the Left.
At least try not to be a hypocrite when you charge others with hypocrisy. Otherwise, all you do is make people laugh, and it's a pretty pathetic defense of Frank to begin with.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGoldberg's post suggest that only Dems are capable of bullying tactics? Is that why he wrote: "There are bullies across the ideological spectrum."?
As far as crimes committed, there was the matter of the prostitution ring run out of his home, paying for sex, putting a partner on payroll, etc.
What were Tom DeLay's crimes, exactly? I haven't heard anything since 5 years ago, when a local prosecutor shopped three grand juries before finding one that would bring an indictment.
Regardless, there is no sense of proportion in comparing Barney Frank to Tom DeLay. Barney Frank has done incalculable damage to our economy, and provided invaluable cover for extensive corruption and cronyism between public officials and the GSEs -- relationships that were worth millions if not billions of dollars. The politicians who match his level of malefaction make up a very short list.
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