Ed Markey: “I thank the gentleman very much. Now, on Barney Frank, Barney Frank is at the same time the smartest Member and the…”

“I thank the gentleman very much. Now, on Barney Frank, Barney Frank is at the same time the smartest Member and the wittiest Member of the United States Congress. That is quite a double to be able to pull off. He has a nuclear power plant for a brain. There is absolutely nothing that he cannot recall when he needs it here in this legislative process. Now, over his career, he is usually right, but too soon for many people to be able to accept. That is how far ahead he was on so many of the issues which we worked on here in the House of Representatives. His political philosophy is, if you want to negotiate, he wants peace. He would love to negotiate with you. He knows that he will out-negotiate you. But if you want political war, he enjoys that, too, because he does not see it as a sprint but as a marathon heading towards that day when the truth will ultimately prevail. When he was in the State legislature, when I served with him, when we had monumental battles on whether or not to reinstitute the death penalty in Massachusetts, whether or not we were going to have a black senate seat in Massachusetts, it was Barney Frank who led the efforts to sustain the veto that would make sure that our State would still be the leader in progressive causes.…”