©2012 Steve Pauwels
|
|
Ediblog.com Steve Pauwels
One Man's Retirement, an Entire State's Redemption? Steve Pauwels
©2012 Steve Pauwels
Let's
call it an early Christmas present: Barney Frank recently
announced he won't be standing for a 17th U.S. House term. It
appears
Following
2009's passing of “Liberal Lion" Senator Edward
"Ted" Kennedy, the Bay State electorate faced the
choice of replacing him with Attorney General Martha Coakely --
a Northeastern Lefty straight out of central-casting -- or
newcomer Republican Scott Brown. To the astonishment of most,
many gleeful, others disconsolate, Brown got the nod.
Kennedy,
of course, had been the perennial Democratic kahuna: nine-term
Senator; big-government, welfare-state Goliath; elbow-throwing,
alcoholic womanizer. Of course there was Chappaquidick and poor
Mary Jo Koepechne, as well.
Hopes
were that Teddy’s berth filled by the plain-speaking,
pick-up-driving Brown would prove a step toward that
Commonwealth's making up for so many years of inflicting so many
deleterious hacks on the rest of the country. Yet, while Brown's
unexpected ascension did yield a brief, emotionally satisfying
shiver for many a conservative, in practice he's turned out a
soggy moderate, at best. A broad-shouldered member of the
Olympia Snow/Susan Collins, Rockefeller-Republican caucus? Yup.
Just another cautious guardian of the status quo? Arguably.
Certainly no rock-ribbed Constitutionalist.
Winds
up that, post-Scott Brown, Kennedy Country still has lots to
answer for.
So,
Congressman Frank's blessed departure now impends -- and,
conveniently, a fresh crack at redemption beckons
Still
foggy on the precise reasons redemption is needed?
Well.
Barney Frank may have been routinely styled one of the
"brainiest", "funniest", and/or "most
eloquent" denizens of the House; but he's been so much more
for those, nationwide, who've groaned under public policy he's
helped shape.
Charles
Krauthammer assesses him "the face of modern American
Liberalism" -- that would be: abortion-mad,
marriage-distorting, Washington-uber-alles,
Government-as-God, envy-driven, racialist,
Judeo-Christian-loathing, Constitution-skirting Liberalism. For
at least thirty punishing years, Barney has been
front-and-center in all of it.
As
the first member of Congress to voluntarily "come out"
an open homosexual (1987), Barney won automatic insulation
against
criticism from the pro-gay media and "enlightened"
political class. He'd need it - to carry him through a 1989
scandal involving male prostitute Steven Gobie, who temporarily
advertised his services out of the then forty-nine year old
Legislator's residence. (Frank claims he was in the dark about
that.) Further, he fixed fistfuls of traffic tickets for the
gigolo and misled authorities to protect him.
"I
was suckered," the
More
recently, he's largely been given a pass for his
year-in-year-out boosting of Freddie Mae's and Fannie Mac's
wobbly lending practices; which contributed centrally to the
collapse of
Rebuffer
of Bush administration concerns, raised in the early/mid 2000's,
about the financial stability of those institutions? No biggee -
Barney assures us.
On
top of that: has a more dyspeptic legislator scowled at us more
regularly over the past few decades than the
Regardless,
through it all, his constituents have slavishly returned him
again and again to his Capitol Hill perch -- returned him
soundly, that is; never by less than double digit margins.
Churlish, sometimes goatish, behavior voters wouldn't tolerate
in a family member went unrepudiated when it emerged in their
squalid solon. Sure, Frank was rumpled, snarling, unpleasant
-- but he was effective, too. Whatever the Harvard-educated
Representative's petulancies and peccadilloes, every two years
In
November 2012, however, a painfully too-long--delayed, but still
very substantial stab at image-refurbishment awaits the
Congressman's
former backers. Potentially, it's Kennedy/Coakely/Brown redux: a
replay of that 2010 political scenario with different actors.
The seating of a genuine, limited-government advocate of
And
if they go for it? Who knows,
I
know that's a long shot. Doubtless, Barney Frank would snort at
my reverie with one of his renowned barbs: “On what planet do
you spend most of your time?”
Steve Pauwels is the Co-Host of Clash Radio with Doug Giles, heard on the IRNUSA Network. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and family.
Comments or Remarks on this column: editor@ediblog.com
|
|
Printer
Friendly Version