Bye, Bye Barney

There are couple of good Barney Frank pieces in the Boston press today. First, Jeff Jacoby on the nasty piece of work that is the congressman we happen to share.

When the longtime Massachusetts representative found himself last year facing -- for the first time in decades -- a surprisingly strong Republican challenge, journalists noticed something strange: He wasn't being as nasty as usual. He wasn't responding to questions with his trademark put-downs. He wasn't condescending to critics with quite as much sneering contempt.

When Barney says he doesn't like campaigning, what he really means is that he finds it too difficult to fake being a decent human being for a few months every couple of years.

Sean Bielat deserves a lot of credit for Frank's retirement. He ultimately bounced him out of office, just not the way he had hoped.

Next up, Howie Carr:

Barney Frank has always been the smartest guy in the room — just ask him.

...

So here’s the irony: Barney Frank, so arrogant, so full of himself, so intoxicated by decades of fawning media coverage, just assumed that he would be taken care of in redistricting by the peons in the Legislature.

When even the far left loons on Beacon Hill find a fellow traveler this off-putting, he might have a problem.

We'll try hard to flip this seat to the GOP, but like I tell people all the time around here, my Republican congressman sits in that seat we lost in the 2010 census. Probably somewhere in Texas.

But there's at least a glimmer of hope that it'll take whatever Democrat we put in this seat a decade or more to become as big a jerk as Barney Frank.

posted by Andy at 02:45 PM

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