Flashback: Boston Globe Reporter Praised Barney Frank's 'Integrity' in Wake of Prostitution Scandal
Barney Frank's retirement announcement could have come as early as 1989 but back then the Democratic congressman from Massachusetts relied on the liberal attitudes of his constituents and his friends in the media to see him through a prostitution scandal, friends like the Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant. On the August 26, 1989 edition of the syndicated Inside Washington, Oliphant had no fear that Frank would survive the scandal of his apartment being used for a male prostitution ring as he proclaimed Frank to be "a man of surpassing integrity."(video after the jump)
The following is a brief excerpt from the August 26, 1989 edition of Inside Washington:
TOM OLIPHANT: I've known Barney Frank since was in college. 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.
- Geoffrey Dickens's blog
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Comments
This Boston writer disagrees...
Submitted by vrwc13 on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 4:01pm.
Just beat it, Barney! Sub-par pol shouldn’t be missed
"Barney Frank is leaving office at the end of his term. Maybe he just wants to spend more quality time with his pot-growing prostitute friends in the sub-prime lending business."
v
The burden of life is from ourselves, its lightness from the grace of Christ and the love of God. - William Bernard Ullanthorne
Different standards in the People's Republic of Massachusetts
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 5:22pm.
Don't forget: This is the state where Congressman Gerry Studds was exposed for having taken an under-age male House page to Portugal for the explicit purpose of engaging in sex outside of US jurisdiction.
As the scandal broke, Studds became the defiant outed-homosexual on the Hill, turning the inquiry into his unchallenged criminal activity into an attack on gay men. The cowering Massachusetts and national media backed off. Studds was never charged with a crime (even though he admitted to doing it), and his constituents re-elected him a few more times because he was a 'good Congressman.'
Frank will be lionized in his home city and state; so be it. I'm just happy that he'll be departing the Congress next year.
You've never known it to be questioned?
Submitted by Morganfrost on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 4:32pm.
"He's a man of surpassing integrity that I've never known to be questioned."
What did Frank's integrity "surpass?" That of a rutting boar? Between the prostitution ring being run out of his apartment and his influence with Fannie Mae on behalf of his boyfriend, I can only imagine what sort of comments would be made about the integrity of a Republican with half the scandals of Rep. Frank.
INTEGRITY?......
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 5:07pm.
Bend over Barney has all the integrity of... well actually he has NO INTEGRITY!! I will be glad when he goes back to Boston to be corn-holed by his boyfriends....... at least we won't have to hear about gay Barney any more!
It's obvious Oliphant was a client.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 4:43pm.
.
OMG
Submitted by Dr. Ron on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 4:50pm.
It never fails to amaze me when reminded of people like Franks (the prositution ring..gay men run by Barney's then-lover out of Barney's home and whom Barney even got a govenment job at the time to supplement his prostitution income...Studds (article above says it all)...John Edwards (mistress? child? liar? No, we will sit on that till such as Drudge and tabloid press have pictures and witnesses, then do a FEW 'lick and a promise' stories and rehab him publically soon as it dies down) and more...all Dems. Remember Clinton...well it is private matter; "I never had sex with that woman"; let's form an organization, Move On, to help the benighted Americans get past this; let's attack Monica (crazed; does with with everyone...no blue dress and that campaign would have worked) and Linda Tripp (let us put a WH aide into Pentagon to get at her federal files and leak 15 year old story to compliant media source...a federal crime, but all he got was a promotion...ye old Dem attack machine). The media covered for them; cheered them on; ignored reality...versus "convicting" in print/on air Republicans for far lesser...even if true...things based on allegations, not evidence. Where the hell are our memories and ability to connect dots??