Barney and the doomsday machine
A Democratic representative from Massachusetts
and the brother of White House communications
director Ann Lewis, Barney Frank is expected to
play a critical role in the effort to save Bill Clinton
from impeachment. In this fight, Frank's experience
with scandal will be an important asset. Here's why:
As the evidence against the President mounts, his
supporters will be increasingly tempted to "go
nuclear," to turn to the last and most dangerous
weapon in their arsenal -- blackmail.
Some call it the scorched-earth defense. Others refer
to it as the Doomsday Machine, after a device in the
film "Dr. Strangelove" that was set to destroy the
world if the Soviets were attacked with nuclear
weapons.
Still others term it the Ellen Romesch strategy.
Former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos said in
February that there was a "long-term strategy" at the
White House that could be "explosive." "White
House aides," he said, "are already starting to
whisper about what I'll call the Ellen Romesch
strategy." Romesch was a communist spy with
whom President Kennedy had an affair. Attorney
General Bobby Kennedy sent FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover to warn Republicans that if they
investigated, information in their FBI files would be
used against them. "We're going to open up
everybody's closets," he said.
Left-wing journalist Joe Conason wrote earlier this
month in the Clintonist magazine Salon: "In an
atmosphere of sermonizing hypocrisy on Capitol
Hill, the temptation to inflict the same kind of agony
and embarrassment visited on the first family over
the past several years may become irresistible."
(Conason expressed the hope that the President
would "foreswear the kind of nastiness they have
deployed against him.")
Barney Frank knows how to use blackmail to save a
political career. That's what he did in 1990 after he
admitted to putting a prostitute on his personal
payroll.
The affair began in 1985 when Frank answered a
personal ad in a newspaper, the Washington Blade.
The ad was for a prostitute named Steve Gobie, who
had been convicted of shoplifting, cocaine
possession and trafficking, and photographing
himself committing sodomy with a 15-year-old girl.
Frank paid $80 for Gobie's services. The two because
fast friends, and Frank hired Gobie as his "personal
aide." Gobie proceeded to run his business out of
Frank's house. He also operated out of a guidance
counselor's office during school hours at an
elementary school.
Gobie later claimed that Frank called home
frequently to see if the coast was clear. Frank
admitted that he had "reason to suspect" Gobie was
still in business, but says he threw Gobie out -- after
18 months -- when it dawned on him that the
prostitution business was being run from his
residence.
In the course of their relationship, Frank wrote
letters on Congressional stationery, using
Congressional free mailing privileges, to parole
officials to vouch for Gobie and lie about Gobie's
activities. He obtained privileged access to
Congressional buildings for Gobie. Frank fixed
Gobie's parking tickets -- tickets that Gobie received
on his rounds -- by claiming that the tickets were for
parking while on Official Congressional Business.
Frank's explanation for his actions: "I thought I was
Henry Higgins," he said, referring to the character in
"Pygmalion"/"My Fair Lady" who attempts to
transform a cockney waif into a proper member of
society.
"I was suckered," Frank said.
Even then, Frank was considered a key player in
Congress. He was chairman of the Americans for
Democratic Action, a premiere organization of
liberals. He was already on the Judiciary Committee,
which is responsible for federal courts,
constitutional amendments, control of subversive
activities, and impeachment, and he was chairman of
the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and
Governmental Relations.
Soon after the scandal broke, Democratic leaders
gave him a standing ovation. The Washington Post
reported that "many in the group encouraged him to
fight the charges ... "
The kudos for Frank was just beginning.
The Washington Post's Mary McGrory wrote that
"Frank serves as a spokesman for his party in the
House. ... Washington reporters seeking the ultimate
quote went to Frank." Frank was at his most
quotable when he took the lead in fighting "sleaze" --
for example, when he demanded that Attorney
General Ed Meese resign because Meese had been
"extraordinarily careless in his associations and how
he conducted himself."
Congressman Chester Atkins, a member of the Ethics
Committee, called Frank one of our "most gifted and
talented legislators. ... Friends, colleagues and
constituents will continue to view his services as
exemplary."
"Congressman Frank ... is supported by his peers,
feared by his opponents, and backed by the House
leadership," said Robert Bray of the Human Rights
Campaign Fund.
"The service Barney Frank has provided to this
country cannot be overshadowed by this one
incident. ... I wouldn't call it a transgression," said
Democratic Party vice-chair Lynn Cutler. "I think it's
kind of sad that people try to take partisan
advantage of this," said Michael Dukakis.
"There is no more able, articulate and effective
member of the House of Representatives than
Barney Frank. He has provided outstanding service
to his constituency and the nation, and I'm confident
he will continue to do so long after the matter has
been forgotten," said Representative Tom Foley
(D-WA), who was then the Speaker of the House.
"He's a man of surpassing integrity that I've never
known to be questioned. I think he's a master
politician, which people forget. He's also a
magnificent Congressman, and above all, there is
nothing in this episode that counters any of those
other images, and I would expect him to survive this
smear in good standing," said Tom Oliphant of the
Boston Globe.
Frank began to blackmail Republicans in 1989.
House Speaker Jim Wright was facing corruption
charges brought by Representative Newt Gingrich
(R-GA). In a last-ditch effort to save Wright, his
supporters spread rumors that the Number Two
Democrat, Tom Foley, was a homosexual. The idea
was that Democrats wouldn't dare replace Wright
with Foley.
After Wright was forced out and Foley became
speaker, Democratic propaganda pictured Foley as a
moderate. Republicans circulated a memo attacking
Foley as a liberal, with the headline "Foley: Out of
the Liberal Closet." There is no evidence that the
term was meant to spread the homosexuality rumor.
It came only a few months after a prominent
cartoonist depicted Democratic presidential
candidate Michael Dukakis as "coming out of the
closet" by admitting his liberalism.
Nevertheless, Frank was enraged by what he saw as
an attack concerning sexual orientation, and he
threatened to expose homosexual Republicans in
Congress. Republicans cowered; the GOP staffer
who prepared the memo was fired, and the message
went out: Don't mess with Barney.
Thus, Representative Frank, who in his 1982
campaign falsely denied that he was gay, earned the
reputation as someone who would "out" others. That
reputation served him well when he faced charges
connected with Steve Gobie.
"Frank's repeated statements in private that he
would name such-and-such as a gay created
inhibitions on the part of Democrats that he would
start naming some of them," according to Horace
Busby, a Democratic consultant. During the censure
vote, a member of Congress who had planned to
vote "aye" changed his mind when threatened with
exposure.
Frank was merely "reprimanded" for breaking the
rules of the House of Representatives, but he
suffered no real punishment. The motion to throw
him out of Congress failed 396 to 38. The motion to
take away his chairmanship failed 287 to 141.
"Frank's effectiveness undimmed, activists say," was
the crowing headline in the next issue of the
Washington Blade, where Gobie's ad had appeared.
If you believe the Clintonists, the President was
"suckered" by a dangerous seductress named
Monica Lewinsky. Now, it appears, his presidency
may depend on the tactics of the likes of Barney
Frank.
>>> Lot of interesting articles at worldnetdaily.com
>>> on Tailgate.
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