Remembering Barney Frank

Episode notes

(Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)

Barney Frank died earlier this year at the age of 86. He served in Congress for 32 years, representing Massachusetts’ 4th district. Between 2007 and 2011, he chaired the House Financial Services Committee. Of the hundreds of pieces of policy Barney Frank drafted, proposed, and voted on, his signature might be the Dodd-Frank Act, which regulated financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Barney Frank was a policy wonk. He was a great public speaker – witty, passionate. Barney Frank was also a trailblazer. He was the first member of Congress to come out as gay voluntarily.

In 2015, we took Bullseye on the road. We did a live show in Boston, and Barney Frank was kind enough to join us on stage. He’d just retired from a few years prior and had written a book: Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage.

Barney Frank discussed his early political career and why he felt his public service was incompatible with his private life. He also touched on what he liked most about being a congressman and why he believes that people who love campaigning are either liars — or psychopaths. 

This interview originally aired in December, 2015