The American Spectator

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The 'Effervescent' Barney Frank

By Robert Stacy McCain on 12.28.08 @ 2:19PM

Probably "flamboyant" would have been too cliched for George Will:

In an interview with Business Week, Rep. Barney Frank, the effervescent Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, was asked, concerning the auto industry, "How do you make sure the government doesn't meddle too deeply in day-to-day operations and bring politics -- like a push for green cars -- into the equation?" Frank replied: "Oh, well, a push for green cars is very much a part of what we're involved in. We don't think that's politics." So, when the government, its 10 thumbs stuck deep in the economy, uses its power to compel an industry to pursue the objectives of the political party that controls both of the government's political branches, that is not politics.
Business Week: "Should GM acquire Chrysler?" Frank: "I'm not competent to say." Frank's humility is selective: He obviously thinks he is competent to say what kind of cars should be made.

Democrats like Frank simply can't restrain their interventionist impulses. That some Republicans harbor similar impulses -- closet interventionists, you might say --  is attested by President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which Will gives a well-deserved kick along the way.