Barney Frank became a progressive icon representing the limousine liberal suburbs of Newton and Brookline in suburban Boston for over three decades before retiring in 2013. Frank was famously the first member of Congress to come out voluntarily as gay and the first to enter a same-sex marriage while in office.
Whatever the cause, Frank was there: the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulation of Wall Street, gay rights, housing policy - to carry the Left's water, noted our friend Steve Moore in his must-read Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline.
But now, Mr. Frank has entered hospice care as he deals with congestive heart failure. He is remaining in his home in Ogunquit, Maine, where he moved with his husband after retiring from Congress. And as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party’s left flank, his political home throughout his long career in politics and public policy.
POLITICO reports "as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party's left flank." The reason is that he's worried progressive have "embraced an agenda that goes beyond what's politically acceptable."
In the interview Frank worries his party has failed to unite around an agenda of shared prosperity and focused instead on the politically toxic social agenda of "the left wing of the left wing's left," especially on immigration, policing, and identity politics.
"For a lot of my colleagues, the argument has been, 'well, we don't support defund the police or open borders, and we don't say we do,'" Frank said. "But my point is, no, it's not enough ... to be silent. We have to explicitly repudiate it."
He added: "many of my colleagues who I know agree with me but are inhibited from saying so."
Known for his acerbic wit and sometimes combative style, Mr. Frank told POLITICO, “I worry a little bit about the tendency on the Democratic side to fall for the flavor of the month,” he said, though he credited Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner for focusing his attacks on incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, not his Democrat opponent Maine Governor Janet Mills. “There is this flirtation or this attraction of people who are new and who are very good at articulating a response to the anger, but without talking about what you do about it.”
The former leading liberal congressman is right when he says the party is losing ground when it sounds more focused on Far-Left ideological purity than kitchen-table concerns like public safety, jobs and affordability. In that, the liberal icon is saying the quiet part out loud: voters may agree with parts of the Democrats’ agenda – but they still tune out the tone of the nuttier parts of the Democrats’ coalition.
Barney Frank’s blunt warning for Democrats may be too late to save them. His comments that Far-Left messaging is costing them voters came too late to save his preferred candidate in the Democrats’ Maine Senate Primary. As Mr. Frank’s interview hit the media his candidate, Maine Governor Janet Mills, dropped out leaving Nazi tattooed Far-Left rage-candidate Graham Platner as the de facto nominee.
Whatever the cause, Frank was there: the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulation of Wall Street, gay rights, housing policy - to carry the Left's water, noted our friend Steve Moore in his must-read Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline.
But now, Mr. Frank has entered hospice care as he deals with congestive heart failure. He is remaining in his home in Ogunquit, Maine, where he moved with his husband after retiring from Congress. And as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party’s left flank, his political home throughout his long career in politics and public policy.
POLITICO reports "as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party's left flank." The reason is that he's worried progressive have "embraced an agenda that goes beyond what's politically acceptable."
In the interview Frank worries his party has failed to unite around an agenda of shared prosperity and focused instead on the politically toxic social agenda of "the left wing of the left wing's left," especially on immigration, policing, and identity politics.
"For a lot of my colleagues, the argument has been, 'well, we don't support defund the police or open borders, and we don't say we do,'" Frank said. "But my point is, no, it's not enough ... to be silent. We have to explicitly repudiate it."
He added: "many of my colleagues who I know agree with me but are inhibited from saying so."
Known for his acerbic wit and sometimes combative style, Mr. Frank told POLITICO, “I worry a little bit about the tendency on the Democratic side to fall for the flavor of the month,” he said, though he credited Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner for focusing his attacks on incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, not his Democrat opponent Maine Governor Janet Mills. “There is this flirtation or this attraction of people who are new and who are very good at articulating a response to the anger, but without talking about what you do about it.”
The former leading liberal congressman is right when he says the party is losing ground when it sounds more focused on Far-Left ideological purity than kitchen-table concerns like public safety, jobs and affordability. In that, the liberal icon is saying the quiet part out loud: voters may agree with parts of the Democrats’ agenda – but they still tune out the tone of the nuttier parts of the Democrats’ coalition.
Barney Frank’s blunt warning for Democrats may be too late to save them. His comments that Far-Left messaging is costing them voters came too late to save his preferred candidate in the Democrats’ Maine Senate Primary. As Mr. Frank’s interview hit the media his candidate, Maine Governor Janet Mills, dropped out leaving Nazi tattooed Far-Left rage-candidate Graham Platner as the de facto nominee.
