Political competition is a wonderful thing. To wit, it is even making a more honest politician out of Barney Frank--well, sort of.Mr. Frank is facing his first serious electoral challenge since 1980 from Marine officer and business executive Sean Bielat, and the liberal baron is making some remarkable concessions to the public mood.
For example, he seems newly sympathetic to the plight of small business, saying that he now favors repealing ObamaCare's infamous new Form 1099 reporting requirements for detailing purchases with any contractor above $600. Mr. Bielat has been hammering away on the issue since Democrats in Congress have refused to repeal the provision, but Mr. Frank now calls it "a mistake" and claims he's "determined" to ensure that Congress repeals it.
| Right up to the moment the lame duck session starts ... |
According to the Globe, Mr. Frank "said in an interview he missed the warning signs because he was wearing ideological blinders. He said he had worried that Republican politicians and the Bush administration were going after Fannie and Freddie for their own ideological reasons and would curtail the lenders' mission of providing affordable housing." We'll see what voters think of this Bush's-support-for-reform-made-Barney-oppose-it explanation.
| He missed it, he blew it, he helped cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars, so let's give him another two years! |