Harrumph!
Massachusetts representative Barney Frank doesn't suffer fools, tolerate tardiness, or think much will result from all those gay rights rallies. But when it comes to the prospect of the next four years, the grumpiest guy in the House is downright giddy.
By Benoit Denizet-Lewis
From The Advocate January 13, 2009
http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid67124.aspIt's 8 a.m. on Election Day, and Barney Frank is doing his laundry. "Good morning," he mumbles, lugging a gigantic white laundry bag over his shoulder as he leads the way from the basement up the stairs to his studio apartment in an unremarkable brick complex in Newton, Mass. We're greeted there by Frank's boyfriend, Jim Ready, a handsome and sturdy 39-year-old who bears an uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin's snowmobiling husband, Todd. Ready loves to surf more than snowmobile, and he's secured promises from Frank, who does not surf, to accompany him on some beach excursions. "I've been to enough political events with him lately," Ready says. "He owes me."
Today, though, the 68-year-old congressman is busy trying to keep his job. There is little doubt that he will -- Frank is beloved in the district he's served since 1981 and is running against Earl Sholley, an all-but-ignored Republican -- but Frank's brand has taken a hit in recent months as Republicans "mounted a coordinated campaign to blame Democrats, with me as the point man, for the economic meltdown," he says. In a poll taken a few weeks before the election, Frank was drawing only 55%. "I'm usually in the high 70s," he tells me, "so that was a problem."
