Video: Rep. Barney Frank ‘Thug Attacks’ Conservative Harvard Law Student for Financial Crisis Question
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 10, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
Rep. Barney Frank, US House Financial Services Committee Chairman, 'thug attacks' Harvard student for asking financial crisis question
Frank was speaking at Harvard earlier this week, and during the Q&A portion, student Joel Pollak asked him what, if any, responsibility Frank felt he had in the nation’s financial crisis.
Frank, rather than answering the question, went on a sputtering, nasty tirade, attacking and marginalizing the student in front of a room full of other students.
Frank was all over the road, barely completing a coherent sentence. He angrily charged the student of right-wing accusations and tactics and being “disingenous” (how can someone be “disingenous” with an open-forum question, Barney?), to the nervous giggles of some of the watching students. But, Joel never loses his cool and continues to politely ask the question. One brave female student finally stands and asks Frank to answer the question. And—get this—Frank never answers it.
What a jaw-dropping meltdown. Who is voting for this clown?
Maybe there was a time way back that Barney “We Don’t Care About AIG Families Getting Death Threats” Frank was a competent politician. But lately, in all that I’ve seen of him, he has evolved into an egomaniacal Daffy Duck cartoon of outrage and bullying. All bluster and blame. He’s a shameless power grabber who will unflinchingly squash anyone publicly that dares to ask him a simple question that isn’t flattering.
Bravo to Joel Pollak for standing firm during Frank’s embarrassing tirade. We need more young people like him. Additionally, we need more citizens to stand firm and hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and their government waste of taxpayers’ dollars in bailouts and earmarks/pork barrel spending when they serve as our congressional representatives. We need more honesty about how this financial crisis began with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Frank has forgotten he’s a servant of the people and not a monarch.
The GayPatriot observed that Frank “accuses the student of ‘making an accusation which is totally inaccurate’ and asks him to suggest what he, the Congressman, should have done. That very response showed his arrogance. He acted as if he never erred, well only once, just that one time when he took some bad advice. That he would ask someone else to suggest his errors suggests a man who rarely, if at all, engages in any sort of introspection, rarely considers if he had done anything wrong. …You’d hope that a guy so powerful would be able to acknowledge his mistakes…”
You can watch the unadorned, full attack on the student on video at RealClearPolitics.com; the acoustics are a bit muffled.
The video below is of an interview conducted by On the Record’s Greta van Susteren with student Joel, with portions of the Frank attack; the sound quality is much better than the previous video.
A slew of Rep. Barney Frank-related posts, articles, and videos:
Michelle Malkin: Barney Frank protests (and sputters and bullies) too much and Speaking of outrageous bonuses for incompetent performance…
Normal USA, Idiots for Obama: Harvard Student Takes On Democrat Barney Frank Over Economy And Destroys Him
Doug MacEachern, Arizona Republic: Frankly, Barney Doesn’t Get It
Sean Hannity, Hannity’s America, Fox News: Geithner Reaches New Incompetence Level (scroll down for portion on Frank)
GayPatriot: Why the Left Loves Barney Frank and The Best Thing Barney Frank Could Do For Gay People…
The New Ledger: If You Thought the Bobs Were Bad, Here Come Tim and Barney
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Coming Soon to a Socialist Theater Near You: ‘Bye-Bye Free Market, Say Hello to Wage & Salary Czar’ and White House Sneer from ‘Thug’ Barney Frank: Who Cares AIG Families’ Lives Are Threatened?
Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog: Institutions Buying ‘Toxic Assets’ will be ‘EXEMPT’ from Bonus/Compensation Oversight: Proposal from Barney Frank’s Committee
Stephan Tawney, The American Pundit: The Hypocritical Incompetence of Congress
Lots of good stuff at Hot Air, these are only a few:
Barney Frank: Republicans have a “psychological disorder” or something
Video: Barney Frank calls Justice Scalia a homophobe
Video: Barney Frank won’t promise confidentiality to AIG despite death threats
Barney Frank: Hey, let’s cap executive compensation for everyone
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