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Ok so the world is imploding, nobody will ever be able to get a loan again, our government have ‘safe guarded’ the banks – still trying to get my head around why this is a good thing.  Chicken licken, Henny Penny and Goosey Loosey are very busy. Oh financial meltdown is all down to gay marriage by the way! Let’s add that to 9/11, Katrina and everything else it gets blamed for.

But we have Barney Frank to watch. Congressman Frank is from Boston, he’s chairperson of the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and what you may not know is that he was the first openly gay politician in the US congress. He’s had a very colourful career with a few controversies thrown in along the way.

If that wasn’t enough what intrigues me about this man is his turn of phrase and his turn out (the badly tied tie, the button down collars – it all fits perfectly in terms of the bluster and cutting sarcasm.)  Each press conference there is a new gem to add to the lexicon – Frank believes that politicians should use the same words as other people and you can see more of his quotes over the years here. Last night he did not disappoint.

“Here’s the story. There’s a terrible crisis affecting the American economy. We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis. And because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country. I mean, I would not have imputed that degree of pettiness and hypersensitivity. We also have — as the leader will tell you, who’s been working with them — don’t believe they had the votes, and I believe they’re covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes.

“But think about this. ‘Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country.’ That’s hardly plausible. And there are 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if anybody insulted them. I’ll make an offer. Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they’ll now think about the country.”

– Rep. Barney Frank responding to accusations that the bailout plan failed because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s statement before the vote was “partisan” and caused some Republicans to change their votes. Republicans claim that 12 members switched their votes after Pelosi’s speech, causing the bailout bill to fail.

h/t  Joe. My. God.