Barney Frank, Entering Hospice Care, Embarks On A Final Act: Taking On The Left

Former Rep. Barney Frank, a liberal icon who was a key architect of the landmark Wall Street regulations Democrats enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has entered hospice care at his home in Maine. And as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party’s left flank.

A champion of liberal causes during his 32 years representing Massachusetts in the House, Frank says progressive Democrats have “embraced an agenda that goes beyond what’s politically acceptable.”

“Until we separate ourselves from that agenda, we don’t win,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

Frank, who served in the House from 1981 to 2013, said he feels “very good — no pain, no discomfort,” but has entered hospice care as he deals with congestive heart failure. He is remaining in his home in Ogunquit, Maine, where he moved with his husband after retiring from Congress.

“At 86, I’ve made it longer than I thought,” Frank said. “At some point, my heart’s just going to give out, and it’s reaching that stage. So I’m taking it easy at home and dealing with it by relaxing.”

Known for his acerbic wit and sometimes combative style, Frank chaired the House Financial Services Committee through the heart of the 2008 financial crisis, from 2007 to 2011. His name is synonymous with Democrats’ last signature achievement in the financial policy space — a sweeping 2010 rewrite of Wall Street oversight known as the Dodd-Frank Act that put new scrutiny on U.S. banks.

Asked about his legacy, Frank said Tuesday he is “very proud of Dodd-Frank.”

“I think we have been vindicated against our critics from both the left and the right,” he said, noting that the only successful legislative effort to roll the law back was narrow in scope.

He also points to the country’s evolution on gay rights. Frank was the first member of Congress to come out voluntarily as gay and the first to enter a same-sex marriage while in office.

“When I decided, finally, to come out in ’87, it just struck me when I did that … the American people are a lot less homophobic than they thought they were supposed to be,” he said. “More racist, unfortunately, but less homophobic.”

His latest book is set to be released later this year (“I face a literal deadline, so I don’t know how we’ll adjust to that,” he said of the timing). He’s hoping “to use my reputation and my record of being on the left to give courage to many of my colleagues who I know agree with me but are inhibited from saying so.”

“For a lot of my colleagues, the argument has been, ‘well, we don’t support defund the police or open borders, and we don’t say we do,’” Frank said. “But my point is, no, it’s not enough … to be silent. We have to explicitly repudiate it."

He says he’s “not arguing that anybody should stop his or her advocacy.”

“But it’s one thing to advocate something knowing that you're going beyond the current viewpoints, and another to make it a litmus test,” he said.

In the progressive-moderate clash roiling his new home state, Frank supports Gov. Janet Mills for Senate over Graham Platner.

“I worry a little bit about the tendency on the Democratic side to fall for the flavor of the month,” he said, though he credited Platner for focusing his attacks on incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, not Mills. “There is this flirtation or this attraction of people who are new and who are very good at articulating a response to the anger, but without talking about what you do about it.”

Overall, though, he thinks the GOP is in poor shape entering the midterms.

“One of my regrets,” he said, “is that I won’t see the continued implosion of [President] Donald Trump.”