Barney Frank to retire from Congress

Bar­ney Frank, the first open­ly gay mem­ber of Con­gress, announced today that he will not run for reelec­tion in 2012, end­ing a career in the U.S. House that began in 1981.

“I will not be a can­di­date for reelec­tion to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 2012,” Frank said in a news release announc­ing his deci­sion to retire.

“I began to think about retire­ment last year, as we were com­plet­ing pas­sage of the finan­cial reform bill. I have enjoyed — indeed, been enor­mous­ly hon­ored — by the chance to rep­re­sent oth­ers in Con­gress and the State Leg­is­la­ture, but there are oth­er things I hope to do before my career ends.”

“Specif­i­cal­ly, I have for sev­er­al years been think­ing about writ­ing, and while there are peo­ple who are able to com­bine seri­ous writ­ing with full-time jobs, my sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to dis­trac­tion when faced with a blank screen makes that impossible.”

Frank also said he felt it made sense to retire now giv­en that his con­gres­sion­al dis­trict in Mass­a­chu­setts has been redrawn. At a news con­fer­ence in New­ton, he made it plain­ly clear he was tired of cam­paign­ing and tired of the grow­ing acri­mo­ny and dis­cord that has come to char­ac­ter­ize Congress.

“If I were to run again, I would be engaged full-fledged in a cam­paign, which is entire­ly appro­pri­ate,” Frank told reporters. “Nobody ought to expect to get elect­ed with­out a con­test. But the fact that it is so new makes it hard­er in terms of learn­ing about new areas, intro­duc­ing myself to new peo­ple. And I have oth­er oblig­a­tions; one is to con­tin­ue to serve the peo­ple I cur­rent­ly serve.”

Reac­tion to Frank’s announce­ment came quickly.

“This coun­try has nev­er had a Con­gress­man like Bar­ney Frank, and the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will not be the same with­out him,” said Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma in a state­ment. “For over thir­ty years, Bar­ney has been a fierce advo­cate for the peo­ple of Mass­a­chu­setts and Amer­i­cans every­where who need­ed a voice.”

“He has worked tire­less­ly on behalf of fam­i­lies and busi­ness­es and helped make hous­ing more afford­able. He has stood up for the rights of LGBT Amer­i­cans and fought to end dis­crim­i­na­tion against them. And it is only thanks to his lead­er­ship that we were able to pass the most sweep­ing finan­cial reform in his­to­ry designed to pro­tect con­sumers and pre­vent the kind of exces­sive risk-tak­ing that led to the finan­cial cri­sis from ever hap­pen­ing again. ”

“Barney’s pas­sion and his quick wit will be missed in the halls of Con­gress, and Michelle and I join the peo­ple of the Bay State in thank­ing him for his years of service.”

“A gen­er­a­tion of Bay State res­i­dents have known Bar­ney Frank for his wis­dom, wit and pas­sion for ser­vice,” added Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Deval Patrick.

“Bar­ney’s lead­er­ship, on issues rang­ing from civ­il lib­er­ties to finan­cial sys­tem restraint, will be sore­ly missed. He has earned the good wish­es of the peo­ple of the Commonwealth.”

“No one’s ever doubt­ed for a minute what Bar­ney Frank thinks or where he stands, and if you weren’t sure, trust me, he’d tell you,” agreed Sen­a­tor John Ker­ry.

“That’s the spe­cial qual­i­ty that has made Bar­ney not just beloved and quotable, but unbe­liev­ably effec­tive as an advo­cate and a legislator.”

“He’s brave, he’s bold, and he’s ridicu­lous­ly smart. Peo­ple have mar­veled for years about what a quick and wit­ty debater Bar­ney can be, but many over­looked his secret: he has a core. He’s the same advo­cate I met in the 1970s stump­ing for Father Dri­nan, only he’s tak­en that fight and that same sense of fun­da­men­tal fair­ness to bat­tles over equal­i­ty, afford­able hous­ing, and fish­ing in New Bedford. ”

“Bar­ney is who he is, no mat­ter the issue. His voice will be deeply missed in the Con­gress and in our del­e­ga­tion, but true to his word he’ll be tak­ing his per­spec­tive to a new are­na where his impact will con­tin­ue to be felt just as deeply.”

“[I] will miss Bar­ney Frank’s voice in Con­gress. He’s a fierce cham­pi­on of the lit­tle guy in a town where the big guys hire armies of lob­by­ists,” U.S. Sen­ate hope­ful Eliz­a­beth War­ren said on Twitter.

Speak­ing of  armies of D.C. lob­by­ists, Frank made it explic­it­ly clear today he has no inten­tion of join­ing their ranks after he retires. He plans to write and teach, and com­ment reg­u­lar­ly on pub­lic affairs, but he has no inten­tion of walk­ing through the Belt­way revolv­ing door once his term ends.

POSTSCRIPT: The Boston Globe, which once called for Frank’s res­ig­na­tion from Con­gress, has a nice edi­to­r­i­al  in its Wednes­day, Novem­ber 29th edi­tion prais­ing him for his years of ser­vice to Massachusetts.