Independent voices from the TWT Communities
It's been three years since the Senate passed the massive Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation named after its two lead sponsors, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank.
When asked on left-leaning MSNBC why President Obama refrained from describing the Boston bombings as a "terrorist attack," David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's longtime political adviser, readily saw a political opportunity. The blood had not been washed away from the streets. We had yet to count the casualties.
Bipartisanship is honored mostly in the breach, but nowhere is there more agreement among partisans in Washington than in celebration of Rahm Emanuel's admonition that "you never want a crisis to go to waste."
Former congressman Barney Frank said Tuesday the horrific events at the Boston Marathon demonstrate the need for a well-prepared government to respond in times of crisis.
There is no way any law can do away with homosexual relations. At the same time, it's not proper to name such a relationship a "marriage" ("Obama administration under fire in gay-marriage arguments," Web, Wednesday).
Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts tapped a former top aide Wednesday to fill John F. Kerry's seat on an interim basis in the Senate and said voters will pick someone to serve out the remainder of the Democrat's term in a special election this summer.
Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah:
Liberal groups have launched twin online petitions aimed at pressuring Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to temporarily name former Rep. Barney Frank to Sen. John F. Kerry's seat if Mr. Kerry is confirmed as secretary of state.
Who's worth watching in 2013? Here are 10 lawmakers of note as the curtain rises on a new season of political theater in Congress.
Even in retirement, Barney Frank plans to antagonize conservatives.
Mitt Romney decried the Dodd-Frank Act as "the biggest kiss that's been given to New York banks I've ever seen." Since its passage, 122 community banks have closed. If the election had turned out differently, there would have been a prospect of repealing Dodd-Frank. There still may be grounds for a modicum of reform, particularly of "too big to fail" (TBTF) banks and doctrine.
Friday's grim financial report from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) -- it's insolvent to the tune of negative $31 billion -- is prompting fresh scrutiny of the government's role in housing, particularly the mayhem caused by federal backing of mortgages involving low down payments and low credit scores.
Of the four openly gay members of Congress, the two longest-serving stalwarts are vacating their seats. Instead of fretting, their activist admirers are excited about a
For more than 50 years, the black community has been the wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party. That may be changing. In spite of the overwhelmingly liberal voting patterns of black voters, they are an essentially conservative community.
The House Ethics Committee officially exonerated Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, in a 3-year-old conflict-of-interest case involving her work on behalf of minority-owned banks despite her husband's financial stake in one of them.
On CNN, Barney Frank, the former congressman from Massachusetts, when asked about the bombing, averred: "I never was as a member of Congress one of the cheerleaders for less government, lower taxes. No tax cut would have helped us deal with this or will help us recover."
Mr. Frank a painful moment or two to say exactly why that was so.
