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Barney Frank's career in the House of Representatives should be remembered in part for its bluntness. Not only did Frank become the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out, but he's also left a trail of memorable statements that others might have kept to themselves.
Here's a list of some of our favorites. But we couldn't have possibly remembered all of the Massachusetts lawmaker's best one-liners. If you have a story about Frank's frankness, please feel free to add to his greatest hits in the comments section below. --Lucas Grindley
(RELATED: Barney Frank Announces Why He's Leaving the House)
Barney Frank's town hall manner
"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table," he told a constituent who had compared President Obama to Hitler.
"I don't think it was on the tip of his tongue, but I do believe it was in the back of his mind," Frank said after Armey claimed he misspoke. "There are a lot of ways to mispronounce my name. That is the least common."Predicting the Tea Party's future
After Frank was called gay slurs by Tea Party protesters, he summed up its supporters in one line: "Any movement in which the intellectual leader is Michele Bachmann is obviously going to be problematic."Segregated Showers?
Conservative interviewer makes mistake of asking Barney Frank whether gays should shower with straights in the military.
"What do you think goes wrong with people showering with homosexuals? Do you think it's the spray makes it catching? ... We don't get ourselves dry-cleaned. We tend to take showers."
Frank walks off a live interview
"You don't like what I'm saying -- you can find someone else to interview."A punch line for a comedian
Frank relished his visit with comedian Kathy Griffin, who demanded he repeal DADT immediately. "She asked me if I would do it, and if you say no, then you get demonized as someone who is afraid. So she came to my office and said, 'I demand that you pass the repeal -- don't ask, don't tell -- by tomorrow, and if not, it will be a bitter pill.' I said, 'Well, it won't be the only pill you swallow this week, I'm sure.'"Another Dick Armey fight
In response to a reporter's question, Armey said, "Yes, I am Dick Armey, and if there was a dick army, Barney Frank would want to join up." Frank said the remark was a "crude, silly, juvenile jibe." But when asked if wanted an apology, Frank said, "I'm trying to think of what I would be less interested in than an apology from Dick Armey -- maybe the lyrics to the national anthem of Bhutan."Delicately addressing some rumors
Why was Rep. David Dreier passed over for Republican House Majority Leader? Republicans said publicly that Dreier was too "moderate" to lead the party, but rumors about his sexuality were swirling. And so Frank said Dreier was too moderate "in the sense that I marched in the Moderate Pride Parade last summer and went to a moderate bar."What does Frank think of Newt Gingrich?
Gingrich had suggested Frank was to blame for the financial crisis and should be arrested, which led Frank to describe the potential Republican nominee as the "self-styled intellectual leader of the free world." A Frank evaluation of the national equality march
"All that's going to pressure is the grass," Frank said, warning marchers that their actions would have little actual effect on Congress.
Frank's agenda
He reacted to the passage of a hate-crimes bill and repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" by embracing the radical gay agenda he's accused of peddling. "For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go."Barney Frank versus Bill O'Reilly
This match was made for watching.
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