Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman
Barney Frank is a masterful legislator and one of the great political minds of our generation. His style -- principled but pragmatic, tenacious yet fair, and always brilliant and funny -- has won him the respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Stuart Weisberg's lively biography of Barney Frank documents all of these extraordinary qualities, and the many ways in which he enriches our democracy.(Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives)Barney Frank is one of the most brilliant, effective -- and funny -- lawmakers of his generation. Not many Congressmen are worthy of a book, but Stuart Weisberg's carefully researched and authoritative account proves that Barney's life and career are indeed the stuff of fine biography.(Cokie Roberts, Steven V. Roberts, ABC News political commentator / Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University)Stuart Weisberg's biography of Barney Frank is not just definitive -- it's as entertaining and fascinating as its subject.(Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court)Someone once said to me, 'Barney Frank talks very fast.' I said, 'Yes, but his mind operates even faster.' I love the beauty and agility of his mind, his extraordinary brilliance, and his intuitive sense of what is right to do in this country. We laughed together, we cried together -- we won some battles, we lost some battles -- but I was very honored to serve with this gentleman. Stuart Weisberg reveals Barney Frank's captivating personality in this riveting biography.(Ronald Dellums, Mayor of Oakland, California, and former Congressman)Weisberg has assembled a thorough portrait of Frank and a compelling Baedecker to Massachusetts politics in the last quarter of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st.(Boston Globe)Weisberg creates a mesmerizing portrait of the legislator known for his wit, speaking skills, intellect, and political savvy, who, when he publicly came out in 1987, was the first serving Congressman to so declare. Starting with Frank's beginnings among the 'cohesive minority' of Jews in the all-white, heavily Roman Catholic, industrial town of Bayonne, New Jersey, Weisberg shows Frank being drawn early to politics -- he campaigned for Stevenson in 1956 at age 16 -- but hiding his sexuality for 25 years. His political career began with moving from a Harvard teaching fellowship to Boston City Hall politics in reform mayor Kevin white's administration and eventually to election to Congress in 1980, where he rose to current chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. among the many compelling passages here are those detailing Frank's half-in, half-out of the closet life while in his forties -- an unfortunate but understandable 'midlife adolescence' for a man who had previously paid male prostitutes and 'didn't have a social life until he was 45.' A significant additional to political and gay studies.(Booklist)