The New Republic
Bailout by Michelle Cottle
The redemption of Barney Frank.
Post Date Wednesday, December 03, 2008
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1367a1e5-6575-4ee9-b011-8826cc7a09b5Barney Frank simply would not shut up. On the afternoon of September 25, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee was holed up in the White House Cabinet Room with a dozen or so government officials laboring to hammer out a rescue package for the flailing financial markets. Those gathered around the grand mahogany table included the president and vice president, the House speaker and Senate majority leader, the ranking Republicans of both chambers, the Treasury secretary, the Fed chairman, and the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. Frank was on hand at the insistence of his party's leaders, who had been relying heavily on him since the crisis erupted.
In the presence of such august company, a less confident man might have been intimidated into silence or at least decorous deference. Not Frank. He kept jumping in, quizzing Bush officials and pressing Republican legislators on their objections to the proposal. When John McCain rambled vaguely about the need to alter the package, Frank cut in to demand: "Like what?" As the senator finished, Frank huffed, "I still don't know what your proposals are." Similarly, when House Minority Leader John Boehner argued for changes, Frank snapped at him to be more specific. ("Like what?" was a common Frank refrain, say those in attendance.) At one point, recall multiple observers, President Bush felt compelled to remind the congressman that White House protocol calls for participants to wait until the president recognizes them before speaking. Unfazed, Frank resumed his prodding and prying. "It didn't affect me," the chairman later explained with a shrug (though he recalls the chiding coming from someone other than Bush). "I wasn't there because he wanted me to be there. I was there because he knew he couldn't leave me out."
