Barney Frank: Conservative Opposition Retarded Recovery

Representative Barney Frank, in a Thursday appearance on CNN said conservative opposition “retarded” the economy. The Massachusetts Congressman is known for hos fiery rhetoric and insults on the other side of the aisle.

Frank told the interviewer,

“The American economy today, of all the economies in the advanced nations in the world… we’re doing the best and we’re doing the best because we’re mixing policies. Now, we’ve been retarded by conservative opposition,”

Frank backed up what he was saying by making a point about public sector hiring. Frank said the economy “lost over 600,000 jobs from state and local government: teachers, firefighters, police officers because the right-wing has sort of cut back on that.”

Frank was reflecting on his 32 years in Congress during the interview. Frank is the first openly gay member of Congress and is retiring at the end of this last term.

Speaking about Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Frank said,

“He was a terrible governor of Massachusetts. Mitt Romney became governor for one reason: to run for president. He was seriously neglectful of the area of the state that I represented that most needed his help.”

He also hit Romney for his shifting ideology, referring to him as a liberal running against Ted Kennedy in 1994, a moderate running for governor and a conservative running for president.

Frank also addressed his upcoming nuptials to longtime boyfriend Jim Ready, saying,

“Jim and I as a married couple, interacting as we will, going to the White House ball in December as another married couple, I think that’s one more fight in the effort to diminish prejudice and give people an alternative reality to the silly stereotypes that they sometimes see,”

Frank and Jim will be married in his district where gay marriage has been legalized.