I was suffering through Morning Joe today, and it was truly suffering. Rolling my eyes through all the "Sure, Obama got the best of the deal, but he shouldn't get any kudos because he doesn't smooze enough" drivel.
Then Barney Frank came on. After being wished well for his becoming free of the House, and congratulated for now being a former MOC, the hosts asked him about the Senate seat soon to be open when John Kerry becomes Secretary of State.
Here is my hand transcription of Barney Frank's answer:
A month ago, a few weeks ago, in fact I said I wasn't interested. It was kind of like you're about to graduate and they said you had to go to summer school. But that deal now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history. [Scarborough: So you'd consider it?] If I, yeah, I'm not going to be coy, it's not anything I've ever been good at, I've told the Governor that I would now like frankly to do that because I would like to be part of that. It's only a 3 month period, I don't want to do anything more, I don't want to run again more...... Coach, put me in.
I'm not from Massachusetts, so I don't know if this was a courtesy offer, or if in fact he was serious - and then I'm not sure how serious the Governor would take Frank's offer.
But I hadn't heard this before. I think a Senate with Barney Frank in it would be a very interesting place, if only for 3 months.