Barney Frank not seeking Re-election

[FerrelGeek]

maybe he start a prostitution racket in his basement. Didn't he do that before??

His boyfriend did.

 

[Ausm]

Just out of curiosity, what do you see those "egregious practices" consisting of? Just want to see how your vision of the problem squares with mine and other people here, and whether you can discern root causes from symptoms.

Lack of transparency in the markets and understanding of complex credit default swaps needs to be addressed,re-instate Glass Steigall Act, re-instate the uptick rule, and make new rules that would control high frequency trading for starters.

 

[piasabird]

There will be dancing in the streets.

 

[woodie1]

It's really too bad that he would have to put some effort into a re-election campaign in order to keep his seat. Wait, could it be that that wouldn't work either.

 

[werepossum]

You are seriously a 1 issue voter aren't you?

A true one-issue voter would say "Hopefully his replacement is as supportive on GLBT issues as he is" and end it there.

Regarding Frank, the most amazing thing to me was when he said "no more Mr. Nice Guy." WTF? This guy considers everyone right of Castro to be clones of Satan and makes no bones about it. Did I miss his nice minute?

While it's always instructive to see how many people think bad legislation is better than no legislation - i.e. the answer is always government, and if more government doesn't solve the problem then we didn't toss enough government at it - it's easy to overplay Frank's culpability in the crash and subsequent recession. He and Chris Dodd almost single-handedly prevented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from being fixed, true. But if Congress hadn't set insane goals that could only be met by ignoring all smart lending standards, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wouldn't have needed fixing. If the private sector banks and mortgage companies hadn't jumped on the quick easy profits bandwagon, if the bond rating agencies and the bond traders had acted in good faith, if the regulators had done their jobs, if the borrowers had acted intelligently, if the appraisers had acted honestly, then the ensuing crash would have been relatively minor. And if the Republicans hadn't gutted Glass-Steagall, the crash, whatever the size, would have been limited to the home loan sector only. And if we weren't borrowing literally tons of money already to consume more than we can afford, if most of the things we buy were made in America rather than imported, we could easily stimulate the economy by borrowing and spending and therefore we could have much more easily dealt with the crash.

Let's all agree that Frank did a very bad thing, but let's not lose sight that this is both sides of the aisle, almost every facet of our economy, and all of us. We may not have all directly had a hand in creating this recession, but we've all at least had a hand in making it harder to solve.

 

[EagleKeeper]

He'll be replaced by another high caliber Democrat thinker.......... Maxine Waters.

The political bosses are now looking at Joe Kennedy, Bobby's grandson

 

[boomerang]

 

[Carmen813]

A true one-issue voter would say "Hopefully his replacement is as supportive on GLBT issues as he is" and end it there.

Regarding Frank, the most amazing thing to me was when he said "no more Mr. Nice Guy." WTF? This guy considers everyone right of Castro to be clones of Satan and makes no bones about it. Did I miss his nice minute?

While it's always instructive to see how many people think bad legislation is better than no legislation - i.e. the answer is always government, and if more government doesn't solve the problem then we didn't toss enough government at it - it's easy to overplay Frank's culpability in the crash and subsequent recession. He and Chris Dodd almost single-handedly prevented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from being fixed, true. But if Congress hadn't set insane goals that could only be met by ignoring all smart lending standards, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wouldn't have needed fixing. If the private sector banks and mortgage companies hadn't jumped on the quick easy profits bandwagon, if the bond rating agencies and the bond traders had acted in good faith, if the regulators had done their jobs, if the borrowers had acted intelligently, if the appraisers had acted honestly, then the ensuing crash would have been relatively minor. And if the Republicans hadn't gutted Glass-Steagall, the crash, whatever the size, would have been limited to the home loan sector only. And if we weren't borrowing literally tons of money already to consume more than we can afford, if most of the things we buy were made in America rather than imported, we could easily stimulate the economy by borrowing and spending and therefore we could have much more easily dealt with the crash.

Let's all agree that Frank did a very bad thing, but let's not lose sight that this is both sides of the aisle, almost every facet of our economy, and all of us. We may not have all directly had a hand in creating this recession, but we've all at least had a hand in making it harder to solve.

I find your reasonable and well thought argument thoroughly repulsive. We've got a citizenry so concerned about screaming at the "OTHER" side that they don't realize they are just pawns in the same game.

 

[sportage]

Sooooo who's u going to blame NEXT? Rachel Maddow?
What a bunch of clueless a-holes we have around here...