In Honor of Barney

From Eric Alterman in the Nation, the best tribute I've seen:

With the announcement of Barney Frank’s retirement, a number of reporters have written to complain of what a meanie the Congressman has been over the years. They would ask a stupid question and Barney would reply, “That’s a stupid question.” I would submit that few developments in our political life would be more salutary than if reporters were forced to account for their willful stupidity, so bully for Barney on that score. But more important for an accurate assessment of the man’s character, I think, is a story I recall from an interview I did with him nearly twenty years ago. The subject was his colleague Ron Dellums, whom I had been assigned to profile by The New Yorker. As the interview ended, I asked Barney, as I did in all my interviews, if I had failed to ask him something I should have. Out of the blue, he brought up the one thing in the world he wanted everyone to forget: his problems with the gay prostitute who had worked out of his basement apartment and almost destroyed his career. Barney brought it up because he wanted me to know that almost alone among his colleagues, his friend Dellums had stuck by him. Barney started to cry as he told the story. I’m kinda tearing up just writing about it. It was an incredibly moving, deeply impressive act of self-sacrifice in the service of public truth-telling and personal solidarity. I share it in a spirit of awe and admiration.