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| CBS '60 Minutes': Barney Frank, 'The Smartest Guy in Congress' |
| 2008-12-19 |
| In a softball profile of the liberal Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank on Sunday's CBS 60 Minutes, anchor Lesley Stahl led with: "Barney Frank has been called the smartest guy in Congress, which is lucky for us, since he works on some of the thorniest issues around. The 14-term, 68-year-old Harvard-educated Democratic congressman from Massachusetts is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which means his portfolio includes banks, housing, and now the auto industry. " Stahl later added: "...even the most hardened Republicans give him good reviews." Stahl never named any of those "hardened Republicans." Stahl did offer some critical descriptions of Frank: "There are many ways to describe Barney Frank. I wanted to read you a sampling of descriptions of you. They almost -- they kind of come in couplets. We have, 'impatient and anti-social,' 'sharp-tongued and downright mean.'" However, she soon followed up with positive testimonials of Frank's non-ideological pragmatism: Near the end of the story, Stahl observed: "True to form, he's an equal-opportunity curmudgeon, also criticizing Barack Obama for not being assertive enough on the credit crisis." Frank explained: "Senator Obama has said we only have one president at a time. Well, that overstates the number of presidents we have at this time. We don't appear to have any." Apparently, saying that having President Bush is like not having a president is somehow critical of Barack Obama. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #15 Which one of the Tisch family did Bawney Fwank fellate to get his free infomercial? |
| Posted by: William Marcy Tweed 2008-12-19 19:48 |
| #14 Barney Frank has been called the smartest guy in Congress Please! The idiot is part of a conspiracy of idiots that took this country into the dumper financially and now Lesley Stahl thinks he is a genius. WTF? Is she brain dead? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-12-19 17:00 |
| #13 Fixed link; somehow appropriate I missed it :( |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-12-19 15:21 |
| #12 So smart he couldn't figure out that his boyfriend was running a gay hooker service out of his penthouse. SCARY smart! |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-12-19 15:08 |
| #11 Every hero needs theme music. Baby, although I chose this lonely life It seems it's stranglin' me now All the wild men, big cigars, gigantic car They're all laughin' at the lie |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-12-19 12:47 |
| #10 I don't know if smart is the right word but to have avoided responsibility for his actions in the Mortgage crisis shows something preternatural. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-12-19 11:58 |
| #9 Tallest dwarf in the circus ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-12-19 10:54 |
| #8 Here's Henry Paulson on Barney Frank: 'He's a market savvy pragmatist who looks for areas of agreement because he wants to get things done.' A Hank Paulson endorsement? Lovely, but what do Bernie Madoff and Rod Blagojevich say about him? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-19 10:05 |
| #7 60 minutes, the dumbest crew in fake journalism. |
| Posted by: newc 2008-12-19 09:57 |
| #6 Smart? You bet! How can anybody be so wrong on so many levels and still get re-elected every time? He must be smart to get away with the BS he has done and not one time has he been investigated. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2008-12-19 08:00 |
| #5 I'm surprised he accepted a blow job from Leslie. |
| Posted by: NCMike 2008-12-19 07:54 |
| #4 Smartest guy in Congress? That is a pretty low bar. |
| Posted by: Formerly Dan 2008-12-19 07:13 |
| #3 T-Ball - to post #1 - not whiffleball... I can't imagine how anyone who worked on that piece by CBS could even remotely call themselves journalists... |
| Posted by: lftbhndagn 2008-12-19 02:32 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-19 02:30 |
| #1 That ain't softball, that's whiffleball... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-12-19 00:14 |