City Desk » Barney Frank

The “Top 5 Barney Frank Takedowns”

Erika Niedowski — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:46:19 +0000

In the aftermath of Barney Frank's "What planet are you on?/Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table" bark to the crazy-lady constituent who recently invoked Nazism in referring to Barack Obama's health plan, the Boston blog That Hottness offers up the "Top 5 Barney Frank Takedowns."

At least those caught on film.

They're not all exactly takedowns; some are just good comebacks. There is a difference. Confusing the two has serious implications for determining whether Frank is, in fact, as I said in an earlier post, mean.

I say again: He is. Even – perhaps especially – if he's right.

The Barney Frank Tirade: He’s Mean, But He’s Not Wrong

Erika Niedowski — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:33:37 +0000

As someone who has herself borne the brunt of a verbal tirade by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and who has never been a fan of the way he feels entitled to speak to people as if they are pond scum, I come forth, nevertheless, in the congressman's defense after his takedown of a woman at a health-care forum in his home district Tuesday night.

She had brought a picture of Barack Obama defaced with a Hitler-like mustache, an utterly absurd, if not uncommon, prop for the opponents of the president's reform plan. She asked Frank: "Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy?"

The congressman, for an uncharacteristic moment, stood saying nothing. And then: "When you ask me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?"

And then: "It is a tribute to the First Amendment that this vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated."

And then: "Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table, I have no interest in doing it."

Frank may be mean, but he's not wrong there.

Watch the exchange.

Day Three at City Paper: Meet, Well, Me

Erika Niedowski — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:16:48 +0000

I joined the Washington City Paper family this week, replacing the beloved Jule Banville, the recently departed asst. managing editor and D.C. brunch-culture-hater who was kind enough to leave in her office some very important things, such as an AP Stylebook, two dictionaries and a bottle of Tylenol. She left a rotten banana, too, but I think that was a mistake.

Please allow me to make this, my inaugural City Desk blog post, an introduction of sorts.

I come to you via reporting stints both near and far. Looking back, I’d have to say the highlight of my first journalism job, in 1995, was the time I asked a Prince George’s County public information officer out of gruff-cop central casting for an update on the condition of a homicide victim ("She's still dead!" he laughed, and then said it again for good measure, causing me to turn a shade of purple I have tried very hard to avoid since.).

At The Hill, writing a feature for a special retail section, I once cornered Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to find out where he shopped for bargains – seriously, I asked him that – and I was scolded and scorned, right there in the House of Representatives’ Speaker's Lobby (I am afraid of Barney Frank to this day).

At the Baltimore Sun, I wrote about public education, public health, the D.C. area sniper – remember that? – the U.S. Potato Board and, one time, myths about George Washington's false teeth. As the Sun’s Moscow bureau chief, yes, I got to go inside the Kremlin, but the best thing I did was leave one of my now-deceased cat Alphabet’s hairs inside Lenin’s tomb.

For the last year and a half, I have been reporting not on your Washington, but the other Washington. You know, the federal Washington, the Big Important Washington, the Washington which, if I were a bolder person, I would confess right here and now to hating at least half the time, probably more. But I enthusiastically embrace the switch – this is the Washington where real life goes on, after all – and what better time to come aboard? A journalist friend said the other day of this city's fine Ward 8 councilman, Marion Barry, whose most recent exploits have been cataloged by City Paper better than anywhere: "Barry is the news gift that never stops giving."

Look for the latest on City Desk and in tomorrow's print edition.

Off to do some journalism now...