AlterNet: How Wall Street Bought Barney Frank

[marmar]

How Wall Street Bought Barney Frank

By Kevin Connor, AlterNet. Posted December 22, 2009.

Barney Frank takes pride in being the Left's darling, but he's almost entirely funded by Wall Street and his votes show it.




Few members of Congress are considered more liberal than Barney Frank. Gay, left-handed, and Jewish, as his biography’s title proudly proclaims, he clearly enjoys living in direct contravention of right-wing ideals.

A favorite conservative punching bag, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly have their tea party base convinced that it was actually Frank who sent the country into an economic tailspin, through some curious combination of incompetence, redistributive zeal, greed, and homosexuality. Beck’s conspiratorial chalkboards link Frank to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, back to the community organization ACORN, and by implication, to the poor and undeserving. Naturally, liberals have responded by closing ranks around the congressman.

The pseudo-research of Fox News and friends, and their obsession with Fannie and Freddie -- hardly the root of all economic troubles -- have distracted from a core reality of Frank’s recent career in Congress. Since becoming the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee seven years ago, he has built a formidable Wall Street donor base, even by Washington’s standards; as the housing bubble grew, so too did his fundraising purse and his stature, in Congress and beyond.

In the course of this Wall Street-fueled fundraising blitz, Frank developed a web of relationships, alliances, and attachments to financial elites that have repeatedly undermined his independence on everything from bailout negotiations to the financial reform legislation that he recently shepherded through the House. And his friends in finance continue to extend -- and collect on -- their investment.

Frank on 'FIRE'

On one day in late July of this year, the Weiss family of Brookline, Mass. gave a whopping $24,000 to Barney Frank. He received maximum contributions of $4,800 each from Kara, an MFA student in Seattle; Judith, an undergraduate at UC Davis; Danielle, a psychology PhD at Tulane; and their parents, Bonnie and Andrew. (All campaign finance data is drawn from OpenSecrets.org and LittleSis.org.) .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/politics/144454/how_wall_street_bought_barney_frank

[midnight]

1. k&R

[a kennedy]

2. I just hate to hear this.......

:cry: :cry: :cry: :thumbsdown:

[progressoid]

3. Barney Frank is on FIRE!

In 2009, Frank has taken in 48 percent of his contributions from FIRE (finance, insurance, and real estate), more than $400,000. Only one Democrat, Jim Himes, has raised more from Wall Street. Melissa Bean, that darling of Wall Street, actually trails Frank by several thousand dollars.

To put Frank’s funding mix in perspective, for every 20 Wall Street donors calling his office, there are two union presidents, one healthcare executive, and a handful of activists and business executives in other industries.

[FLAprogressive]

5. and look at that, Chuckles Schumer not far behind

[progressoid]

7. Yup. kind of sad.

[FLAprogressive]

8. i laugh at people who think Schumer's a liberal....yeah he's a classical liberal but no progressive

[mdmc]

11. He is an upper east side elitest liberal

the kind that has always been rich and never worked a day in his life..

[FLAprogressive]

12. limousine ivy league liberal

[Individualist]

14. He's a DLC member

[Zodiak]

21. No, he is not

But he has taken money from them on a couple of occasions, and he does favor administrative policies within the Democratic party that promote DLCers.

But he is not an official member.

[jonnyblitz]

10. he's become a pompous asshole. he sneered at the GLBT

March on Washington last fall.

[FLAprogressive]

4. K&R -- Barney Frank is no progressive.

[CreekDog]

15. I guess our job isn't complete

until we make enemies of anybody who has ever done a good job supporting our positions.

as you were...:eyes:

[FLAprogressive]

6. kick

[mdmc]

9. Perhaps I could give up all of my issues that I care about for several million

In fact, I am sure of it. Give me a couple million and I will become a teabagger or a corporatist. I am just that weak..

[Meldread]

13. Does this really shock anyone?

Virtually every elected official we have from both major parties are like pigs at the trough.

[Flatulo]

19. That is the truth of the matter. We're screwn.

[1]

16. barney gotta eat. cut the dude some slack...

[Octafish]

17. And if they can buy Barney Frank, they can buy ANYBODY...

Well, just about anybody.

[lonestarnot]

20. Just about anybody.

[placton]

18. 2 kinds of Dems

skunks and enablers

[pjt7]

22. Frank Sold Out

He should be stripped off his chair responsibilities. This is no time ot be F-ing around.