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I had always been interested in politics. I had assumed - for two reasons, being Jewish and being gay back in the late '50s, early '60s - that I would never be elected or anything, but I would participate as an activist.

Barney Frank

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Barney Frank
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: March 31
Former U.S. Representative
Politician
Bayonne
New Jersey
Barnett Frank
Would
Late
Participate
Politics
Activist
Two
Elected
Anything
Jewish
Back
Gay
Reason
Reasons
Always
Early
Never
Interested
Assumed

More quotes by Barney Frank

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The Moral Majority supports legislators who oppose abortions but also oppose child nutrition and day care. From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
Barney Frank
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I think there was an absolute, deep gap between consensual relations between adults, which people may like or dislike, and people who physically impose themselves on children or misuse their authority to impose on children.
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But here too it should be noted that the President's approach was to first ask the repressive and brutal Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden to us, and only after that government refused to do that did we invade.
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A leader can`t move a country that`s not ready. You can`t make the waves, but when you see them coming, you can help direct them.
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Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there's no hierarchy.
Barney Frank
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I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court.
Barney Frank
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Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so.
Barney Frank
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There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn’t make any difference,” Frank said. “It’s the most rigid ideological party since before the Civil War. … The bumper sticker I’m going to have printed up for Democrats this year is, ‘We’re not perfect, but they’re nuts.’
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Let us not say that we will decide on a political basis at the national level that no State is competent to regulate the practice of medicine in that State if they decide to allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana, because that is what we are talking about.
Barney Frank
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I should have voted for the first Iraq war. George Bush did that one very well. I had been skeptical. I was afraid that George Bush was going to treat the first Iraq war the way his son treated the second.
Barney Frank
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Serving in Congress is like having a second shot at high school.
Barney Frank
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I am very proud of the role I played in getting legal equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and in helping get rid of the prejudice by being visible about it, helping to block the conviction of Bill Clinton of impeachment.
Barney Frank
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We all have the right to call each other names. Rudeness is a deeply held constitutional value.
Barney Frank
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The single most important thing you can do politically for gay rights is to come out. Not to write a letter to your congressman but to come out.
Barney Frank
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There is an irony that the most active anti-gay groups are Al-Qaeda and the American Right wing.
Barney Frank
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It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.
Barney Frank
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Ronald Reagan believes in the free market like some people believe in unicorns.
Barney Frank
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Whenever people are being intellectually dishonest in debate, it is an implicit concession they have lost the fight
Barney Frank
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It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people.
Barney Frank
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Community action is as valuable a principle on the international level as it has been domestically.
Barney Frank