Barney Frank on NPR's Morning Edition: Priceless discourse

I have been utterly moved this morning to come out of my blogging seclusion to comment on a recurring piece of sheer entertainment on National Public Radio's Morning Edition (NPR ME). Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) is the current chair for the House Financial Services Committee--an extremely busy and high profile post in current times. As such, he is continually working image control on the 'bailouts' that began with AIG, continued through much of the financial sector, and now are focused on the US auto industry. My comments here are completely a-political, rather my goal is to make sure anyone who reads this takes at least a moment to listen to one of these interviews! As the title uses the word, I reiterate: priceless.

Rep. Frank cannot help himself but to fill every second of each of these interviews with his opinionated and assertive blather; but I cannot help but listen. There is no interviewer necessary. The first such discourse I heard was 'moderated' by ME's Renee Montagne. Frank took the opportunity to deliver a speech regarding the importance of the government's 'investment' into the financial sector. Throughout the interview, he refused to be interrupted by Ms. Montagne in her attempts to guide the discussion, question Frank's arguments, or request clarification. When she finally gained Mr. Frank's attention for such a request, the interview slipped off into oblivion as the representative continued to clarify his point into the next break. The second intervew was similar and Mr. Frank continued to talk as Ms. Montagne proclaimed as loudly as she could that they were out of time.

This morning I nearly spat my coffee onto the dash of the car when I heard that Montagne's co-host Steve Innskeep would interview Frank. Montagne and Innskeep must have formed a gameplan in the wee hours of the morning and decided that Innskeep was the man to carry it out. The interview followed a familiar format, with Innskeep asking a specific question and Frank replying with an encompassing essay with opinionated and conjecturing supporting statements. As you may have already surmised, there are no conclusions in Frank's verbal essays. Toward the end of the interview, Innskeep managed to get Frank to hush up long enough for "one last question, and we only have a few seconds for your response". Frank quickly piped up, before the question had even been posed, "well, you'd better not make it complicated if I only have a few seconds [sic]because I need time to respond to these things...." Innskeep could no longer control himself and burst out into what must have been simmering laughter that was finally brought to a boil after a morning's worth of preparations for this gem of an interview.

You may listen to the most recent interview on NPR's website by clicking the link here: NPR's 11.19.2008 interview with Rep. Barney Frank

This article is not attended as an endorsement of any political ideology, party, or representative. It is, however, intended as an endorsement of NPR's Morning Edition and their continuing interview series with Rep. Frank.