Don't mess with Barney

Barney Frank has often been called the smartest man in Congress. I know at least that he has the fastest, most deliciously wicked wit. And Newt Gingrich has more than met his match.

A few weeks back, Newt bloviated about Barney 'helping to cause the mortgage crisis by failing to stop Freddie Mac from making all those bad loans.' He even went so far as to say that Barney Frank should be in jail for mishandling his responsibilities as a member of the House Finance Committee.

Now that we know that Newt Gingrich was actually paid $1.6 million as a consultant by this same Freddie Mac, he's got a few things to answer for. So far, he's having a hard time making people believe that he "merely gave Freddie Mac advice as a historian" and that he was not paid as a lobbyist.

Baryney let him have it today. In an interview with Chris Matthews, he said:

“Well, he’s just lying. It is, of course, lobbying. . . . He is clearly the highest paid historian in American history. People complain if you go into the humanities, you don’t make as much money, but this may do a lot for that career path."

Then, referring to Gingrich's defense that he didn't know the details of the amount he was paid, because it went to his consulting firm, The Gingrich Group, Barney added:

"Frankly, I thought the Gingrich Group were his wives."

OK, folks. I think that will satisfy my need to ridicule these clowns for a while. I'll try to think about some other things for my next few posts.

Ralph