Barney Frank Conflict of Interest?

Well.  Another bombshell you won't hear in the liberal media.  Why?  Well, two main reasons, and one ancillary one.  The two main reasons?

1) Both men involved are openly gay, and
2) Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) is a very powerful liberal Democrat.

The ancillary (secondary) reason?  Because the appearance of a conflict of interest will be very upsetting to people who are already upset at the Mother of All Bailouts.

For those reasons alone, the mainstream media won't dare touch this.  At this point I'm going to step back and recount something that happened to me well over a decade ago now. 

It happened at my sister's* birthday bash in the mid 1990's.  She had a place full of people, with most of them on the ground or second floor.  Dana and I were in the basement, being the two computer geeks.  And yes, as geeks are wont to do, we were playing computer games.  The rage at all the time was DOOM.  So, we were killing each other in DOOM.  Well ... OK.  It was more lopsided than that.  As you've come to expect from me, the entire truth was that it was a massacre.  In the middle of it, I offered to go up and get each of us something to drink.  When I made it into the kitchen, my sister* introduced me to a few people I didn't know.  I greeted them all politely and then went back to the basement door.  One of the people I'd just met stopped me and said a total of one word.  The word?  "Homophobe." 

That's it.  Just one word.  "Homophobe."  I'd just met the young woman.  I didn't know her from Dago or Adam.  I know I'd never spoken with her before, and I've not seen her since.  Our entire conversation was one word (after the brief introductions) - "homophobe." 

When all that one person remembers about you is your religion or lack thereof, your sexual orientation, race, colour, or any grouping ... if that's all they know of you, that's a very sad place to be.  I've frequently thought about that young woman, but not enough to track her down.  I could if I had to, I'm virtually certain that my sis keeps tabs on her.

But, to get back to the article at hand.... Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has been accused of a conflict of interest in the Fannie Mae meltdown.  And he may actually have such a conflict.  Here's a link to the article:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html

" "I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," [Herb] Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover." "

The two were, in fact, lovers from 1987 to 1998.  During their time together, however, Herb Moses was a top exec at Fannie Mae and, in fact "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

Oops?  No confict of interest?  Now let's assume that Mr Frank was a Republican.  We'd never and I do mean never hear the end of it.  No double standard??

???

* My sister.  She isn't actually my biological sister.  However, she and I have always had a wonderful and very close relationship.  I call her my sister and she calls me her brother, even though we are not biologically related.  Her husband has no problem with this.  While he knows that I do love her, I am not in love with her.  There is a huge difference.

He actually had to learn the hard way.  I've known her for as long as I can remember.  And as anybody who knows me will tell you, one of my first clear memories was of the Apollo 11 astronauts landing on the moon. 

I was two years old at the time.

One day while they were dating, he told her that he wasn't comfortable with my being that close a friend.  (I didn't know of the conversation at the time, she of course told me later.)  Her reply?  "You'd better get comfortable with it, because I've known him longer than I've known you've been drawing air."

The only regret I have is that my eight-year-old neice is now eight.  It seems like only yesterday she was in diapers.  It seems like only yesterday that she would cry if her mommy put her in the crib.

It seems like only yesterday that we could somewhat trust our politicians.  And actually that's not exactly true.  We do trust.  We trust they'll screw us over.