OK Barney, let’s rumble
By Rachelle Cohen and Patrick J. Purcell | Thursday, November 4, 2010 | [url=http://www.bostonherald.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.bostonherald.com[/url] | Op-Ed
Bring it on Barney!
Newspapers live for moments like the one Barney Frank gave us on election night. To be called out - by name - by a 30-year incumbent. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Now you’d think that a guy enjoying his hard-fought election victory - his first hard-fought contest in just about forever - would savor the moment. Perhaps say a few gracious things about his smart and respectful young opponent.
After all, Sean Bielat, a former Democrat and Marine reservist with a Wharton MBA, wasn’t some wild-eyed birther.
But when you’ve spent nearly half your life in Congress as Frank has, it’s always all about you.
So in a speech that lacked any hint of graciousness, Frank thanked his 4th District voters for turning back the “unreasoning anger, vituperation [and] anonymous smears.”
In fact, he insisted, “This was a victory for a concept of government which eschews the anger and the vitriol . . .”
Unless, of course, it’s anger and vitriol coming from Mr. Congeniality himself.
That’s when he launched his anti-Herald screed.
“With the re-election of the Massachusetts delegation and Gov. Deval Patrick, we can acknowledge tonight that Massachusetts has reaffirmed the complete political irrelevance of the Boston Herald. There is no limit to the bias and vitriol [there goes that word again] they unleashed.”
Nearly as we can tell it’s not the Herald’s editorial non-endorsement that really grated on Frank as much as the fact that one of our reporters captured on video that bizarre moment when Frank’s partner, James Ready, harassed Bielat with his video camera.
So, can we talk vitriol here? There’s Ready hitting Bielat with questions, repeatedly calling him “Dude” (who uses dude any more, any way), trying to get him to lose his cool. He didn’t.
But on election night Frank did.
After weeks of attempting to keep his basic nastiness and contempt for voters in general and the media in particular in check, Frank could finally let loose. Oh sure, the Herald and then Fox News were his main targets, but, let’s face it, Barney isn’t what you would call a man of great personal warmth and charm.
He did drag himself in for an editorial board meeting at the Herald, early in the election cycle - got to give him points for that. But at a subsequent breakfast meeting with some downtown movers and shakers he used all the same pre-scripted “off-the-cuff” anecdotes.
What’s up with that. At least the old, original Barney was, well, original.
But now we’re stuck with each other for the next two years.
And Frank pretty much told, not just the Herald but the rest of the media, how it’s going to go when after leaving the stage Tuesday he once again refused to answer media questions.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “but the election is over.”
We’re sorry too. But, you know, there’s another one in just two years.
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rofllol 
