Rep. Barney Frank announces retirement

[Razgovory]

Well, if I ever get charged with running a gay prostitution ring, I will certainly be claiming they I didn't know they were in my basement.

"Morning officer, what can I do for you".

"Save the pleasantries Raz, we caught you red handed."

"Red handed?  What the hell are you talking about?",

"Don't play dumb with us, we can see the guys standing around the room dressed like the Village People.  It's damned obvious what is going on here!"

"Wait... You can see them too?  Ooooooh."

[jimmy olsen]

 

[Caliga]

I thought Count was a Jew. 

He is (was?)

[Darth Wagtaros]

Can't blame the guy for running a brothel out of his basement. He's an entrepreneur. Isn't that what we want? Small businesses creating jobs?


Hell, I wouldn't mind having a brothel in my basement. It'd be kinda cool.

you'd need gold teeth.

[KRonn]

Sheesh, about time for Frank to step down! Only been 30+ years.       He's much too lefty for me, but his constituents like him, so that's what matters. I could never understand it,  but this is Massachusetts and anyone with a "D" next to their party affiliation gets extra credit in elections.

I'm still annoyed over the parts that he, Dodd and any others, Dem or Repub, played with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the problems in the housing mess those institutions have played.

[The Brain]

Barney related to Hans?

[fhdz]

We need a #-of-terms-served limit. Badly. Career politicians are one of the reasons we are in our current mess.

[Razgovory]

Sheesh, about time for Frank to step down! Only been 30+ years.       He's much too lefty for me, but his constituents like him, so that's what matters. I could never understand it,  but this is Massachusetts and anyone with a "D" next to their party affiliation gets extra credit in elections.

I'm still annoyed over the parts that he, Dodd and any others, Dem or Repub, played with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the problems in the housing mess those institutions have played.

It's odd he gets so much flak for something that passed when his party had the minority in the House.

[Razgovory]

We need a #-of-terms-served limit. Badly. Career politicians are one of the reasons we are in our current mess.

Opposite is true actually.  The last big crisis (the debt ceiling thingy) was not caused by "career politicians".  It was caused by neophytes.

[Iormlund]

"Wait... You can see them too? "

[KRonn]

Sheesh, about time for Frank to step down! Only been 30+ years.       He's much too lefty for me, but his constituents like him, so that's what matters. I could never understand it,  but this is Massachusetts and anyone with a "D" next to their party affiliation gets extra credit in elections.

I'm still annoyed over the parts that he, Dodd and any others, Dem or Repub, played with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the problems in the housing mess those institutions have played.

It's odd he gets so much flak for something that passed when his party had the minority in the House.

As I understand it, he's been a proponent of Fannie and Freddie. But I'm not just blaming him. Those agencies were taking in bad mortgages and selling them as mortgage securities and such. So many of them went bad, adding to economic woes. Why didn't anyone take a close look at these actions? Frank was on the Financial Commissions, head of one I believe, so maybe he should take some responsibility for failure of Fannie and Freddie, and for them not being reigned in. Along with others who didn't notice, either incompetence for not knowing or negligence if they did know.

[Razgovory]

Dodd and Frank or the culprits according to conservative land despite being in the minority at the time.  Revealing the other actors in the scenario would be embarrassing.  The result is this strange circumstance where members of the minority party are the main culprits.

[fhdz]

Opposite is true actually.

No, it really isn't.

The last big crisis (the debt ceiling thingy) was not caused by "career politicians".  It was caused by neophytes.

Even if that were wholly true (and it leaves out the entire bit about how we got to a point where we needed to raise the debt ceiling again, so your argument's flawed from the get-go) it does not necessarily follow that career politicians do not carry with them their own set of problems.

[Razgovory]

Perhaps, but that baggage is separate from the neophyte baggage of not knowing how everything works.  Have existing term limit legislation improved government?

This is just pure populist hogwash.  People get corrupted by power "up there", and they lose that good 'ole common folks sense needed to run government.

[Maximus]

We need a #-of-terms-served limit. Badly. Career politicians are one of the reasons we are in our current mess.

Yes, and that # is one.