bobbyw24
12-09-2009, 08:01 AM
Barney Frank blows up at people. It’s what he does.
During the summer, he suggested a town hall attendee who compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler was as dense as a dinner table. He walked off the set of CNBC in June after the host interrupted his answer. And just recently, he cut off an interview with Newsweek, asking the reporter, “Are you trying to catch me in some lie?”
Usually, the lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and analysts who deal with Frank on a daily basis greet it with a collective shrug and an amused smile, because — after all — that’s just Barney Frank.
Frank’s trademark flashes of anger and impatience have gained a new prominence in the past year as Frank himself has grown in importance. He’s now chairman of one of the most influential House committees, which takes up financial reform legislation starting Wednesday that is both a political and policy imperative for the Obama administration.
But now financial lobbyists — Democrats and Republicans — say privately that Frank’s actions on regulatory reform have grown as volatile as his moods. Even some of his most ardent defenders acknowledge Frank has a thin skin. And they say the usually measured policymaker is being forced into an usual position: making calculations based on political pressure from fellow Democrats in ways he never needed to in the past.
Case in point: Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to rein in the Federal Reserve, by requiring the central bank to undergo an audit. Normally a powerful chairman like Frank could squash a GOP amendment like that — but with more than 300 co-sponsors on the stand-alone bill and plenty of Democratic support in his committee, Frank decided to let it come up for a vote in committee, much to the consternation of the Obama administration and the Fed itself, where Chairman Ben Bernanke vehemently opposes it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30374.html
During the summer, he suggested a town hall attendee who compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler was as dense as a dinner table. He walked off the set of CNBC in June after the host interrupted his answer. And just recently, he cut off an interview with Newsweek, asking the reporter, “Are you trying to catch me in some lie?”
Usually, the lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and analysts who deal with Frank on a daily basis greet it with a collective shrug and an amused smile, because — after all — that’s just Barney Frank.
Frank’s trademark flashes of anger and impatience have gained a new prominence in the past year as Frank himself has grown in importance. He’s now chairman of one of the most influential House committees, which takes up financial reform legislation starting Wednesday that is both a political and policy imperative for the Obama administration.
But now financial lobbyists — Democrats and Republicans — say privately that Frank’s actions on regulatory reform have grown as volatile as his moods. Even some of his most ardent defenders acknowledge Frank has a thin skin. And they say the usually measured policymaker is being forced into an usual position: making calculations based on political pressure from fellow Democrats in ways he never needed to in the past.
Case in point: Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to rein in the Federal Reserve, by requiring the central bank to undergo an audit. Normally a powerful chairman like Frank could squash a GOP amendment like that — but with more than 300 co-sponsors on the stand-alone bill and plenty of Democratic support in his committee, Frank decided to let it come up for a vote in committee, much to the consternation of the Obama administration and the Fed itself, where Chairman Ben Bernanke vehemently opposes it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30374.html