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.
