Barney Frank: Mitt Romney 'Despicable' For Anti-Gay Views

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Tuesday that Mitt Romney was "despciable" for his positions on gay issues, according to the Washington Blade.

Romney trivialized gay marriage and demonstrated a "willingness … to switch and become very anti-gay," Frank told a Blade reporter at a reception for the National Stonewall Democrats’ Capital Champions.

Frank, who has previously called Romney unprincipled, also dismissed his hiring of an openly gay spokesman, Richard Grenell.

“He’s got one openly gay person,” Frank told the Blade. “How many people is he going to hire? He had some openly gay people work for him when he was in Massachusetts. We’re beyond giving people credit for not overtly discriminating.”

Frank, who is retiring at the end of the term, declined to criticize President Barack Obama for not doing more on LGBT issues, but he said he would like to see the Democratic Party platform include a plank supporting gay marriage or more clearly opposing the Defense of Marriage Act. A number of prominent Democrats, including four former DNC chairs, have endorsed adding support for same-sex marriage to the platform.

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Comments

[kerrystevens]

01:56 PM on 05/02/2012

Barnyard morals Frank calling ANYBODY despicable? What a laugh!

[flyboy66]

07:40 PM on 05/01/2012

It was a good idea to try and sell every American a house but it got out of control. The Romney people especially the Mormon members of his campaign are going to have an awfully hard time complying with this desired sort of EOP compliance of bringing in token gays to for the American voter to see. Many Mormons will go to the sanitary room (bathroom) and wash after being in the same room with a gay. I have lived amongst them I know how they are.

[NovemberScorp]

09:20 AM on 04/26/2012

You go Barney ! You Rock!

[monza866]

08:42 AM on 04/26/2012

Barney contributed to the housing mess. Fanny anf Freddy were fine according to this loser. Thankfully he's leaving but the damage was done.

[truth be told again]

10:47 AM on 04/26/2012

I think Newt Gingrinch had a lot more to do with swaying Fannie and Freddie to wreak their havoc than Mr. Frank ever did.

[monza866]

04:21 PM on 04/26/2012

But you'd be wrong. Those that ran those agencies ripped off multi-millions dollars and got away with it with Franks doing nothing.

[JaCar]

08:46 PM on 04/26/2012

Please explain how one of 432 members of the House of Representatives, which is one of two houses of Congress (the Senate having 100 members), which are both checked by the President, had the power that you attribut to him regarding the housing crisis. Do you seriously believe that while GW and the Republicans held both Houses of Congress for six of the eight years of his presidency and "W" ran in 2004 on increased home ownership, that it was the fault of one House member in a chamber of Congress with 432 members? Seriously? Not two unfunded wars? Not deregulation allowing banks to bundle loans as collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) and sell this junk on the stock market as Grade A investments? You following me here? You understand how, thanks to reckless Republican deregulation, banks were able to unload their risky debt by packaging and reselling them as bundles?

It's simply amazing how Fox and AM radio have managed to peddle the absolute incredible absurdities to our country's low information voters. Barnie Frank, was 1 of 432 members of the House. The Senate has 100 members.Simply amazing

[monza866]

07:59 AM on 04/27/2012

You do remember that the dems controlled both houses? Him and Maxine Waters went to bat for them and it was the Carter administration that wanted everyone to have a house regardless if they could afford it. The banks knew the pressure on them to write bad loans would come home to roost so they passed on what they could to avoid the losses that the govt policy created. Recklessness is the Democrat idea that of making loans to people who could never pay them back. Its amzing the blindness of voters who believe they know it all,usually libs.

[fredpa]

07:52 AM on 04/26/2012

For those clever folk who raise that 'how's the hope and change working for you" criticism: Let's say that 4 years ago you were an auto worker. What were you hoping for? Let's say that 4 years ago you couldn't get a medical treatment because of a pre-existing condition. Have you seen any change?

[wendy82551]

09:06 AM on 04/26/2012

The "How's the hope and change working for you" is usually voiced by childish intellectual lightweights who apparently fail to understand that change takes time. The elimination of DADT is a huge step. The refusal to prosecute cases under DOMA is a huge step. More importantly, the administration's acknowledgement of LGBT people by inviting openly gay couples to state events is an important statement, a huge step. It's not the final step, but I have no doubt that if we get off our heinies and elect Pres. Obama, keep the Senate Democrat, and maybe even take back the House, marriage equality will be on the immediate horizon. That's my hope, and that is a huge change.

[fredpa]

10:47 AM on 04/26/2012

Well spoke Wendy. The administration has done a great deal, nad one of the things it hasn't done is blow its own horn. It's up to you and me.

[gaydood]

07:29 AM on 04/26/2012

You tell em Barney !!!!!!

[NC Democrat 12]

01:58 AM on 04/26/2012

Well, he's using politer language then I do.

[jacobson52]

01:04 AM on 04/26/2012

Meanness versus Barney the politician who was so misguided when it comes to the economy...it is hard to tell which would be worse for the future of America.

[tpk]

03:15 AM on 04/26/2012

Barney is retiring from Congress this year, so don't worry about him. concentrate on Romney's meanness

[BigLeftbowski]

12:49 AM on 04/26/2012

The only thing that the GOP requires to prevail in November is for good men and women to not vote.

[Priestess of Ryleh]

02:19 PM on 04/26/2012

and they are working hard to ensure that that also does not stop them...

voter suppression has always been a conservatives tool for maintaining power.

[Daniel Hicks]

11:38 PM on 04/26/2012

Why else do you think they're so for locking up, harassing, and disenfranchising minority voters, then miseducating everyone else? It's mind-numbingly transparent...

[david of real earth]

12:22 AM on 04/26/2012

Good old Myth Romney will suckle up to anyone or any idea that gets him elected.

[rockv12]

12:19 AM on 04/26/2012

There's a lot more to running our country than helping gays get everything they want.

[truth be told again]

09:52 AM on 04/26/2012

An injustice to one is an injustice to all. It impoverishes the entire country.

Once gay people are treated as equal citizens in America, then we can talk further.

[Dkbny]

01:45 PM on 04/26/2012

Yeah, and the repub stonewalling has been preventing any of that getting done either.

[warrensalem]

12:01 AM on 04/26/2012

Romney's just all around despicable

[kaykaythere]

12:15 AM on 04/26/2012

You know. I don't think he is despicable as much as he is lost. I feel he thinks he needs to be President to fulfill some family agenda or birth right from his dad. Kind of like how I felt W had this need to complete his father's Iraq war.

He just doesn't know how to approach it with his own convictions. I don't know if he even has any convictions.

[Robert A Alba]

12:19 AM on 04/26/2012

He certainly has convictions, but you aren't privy to them because they are bound up in the idiotic mormon myth that infidels like you aren't allowed to see in its full idiocy.

[thomas James fuller]

12:00 AM on 04/26/2012

Barney, Get over yourself. You became irrelevant the moment you farted on Maddow. Nobody that has an ounce of self respect listens to you. After all, you are the king of Fannie (still ironic) and Freddie and all the slaughter that went along with it.

[kaykaythere]

12:16 AM on 04/26/2012

My aren't you a curmudgeon

[JaCar]

08:48 PM on 04/26/2012

Another delusional Republican, trying to dodge the FACT that "W" and the Republican congress, led to our economic collapse. Yes, while Bush and the two Houses of
Congress the Republicans held majorities in for 6 of the 8 years of GW's administration, it was somehow the fault of 1 Congressman. Yes, 1 of 432 members of the House of Representatives, mysteriously held the power to control our entire government. Forget the 100 members of the Senate, a body which requires a supermajority to get anything passed, or the power of the Presidency. Somehow Barney Frank, 1 of 432 House members held all the power. Classic Glenn Beckian babble. LMFAO.

[Draesop]

11:47 PM on 04/25/2012

That homosexuality continues to occupy a significant portion of the media in 21st Century America speaks strongly to the prevailing idiocy. The use of ancient texts to justify hate directed at homosexuals is similar to the maintenance of city walls to keep away venereal disease carrying citizens, hanging bells around the necks of those with dermatological diseases and other practices of that time. These homosexual haters quite likely do have tendencies that make them question their sexuality and may also be aware of family members whom are homosexual.

[randallr01]

11:36 PM on 04/25/2012

Romney will lose.

[Skagway sioux]

01:58 AM on 04/26/2012

I so hope youre right !!