Barney Frank Won't Run Again
MALVEAUX: Want to go to a live event. Congressman Barney Frank, who is announcing that he will not seek re-election for 2012. Let's listen in.</s>REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I have gone through some changes here. Last year, particularly around the time of the signing of the financial reform bill, I tentatively decided I was going to make this my last term. I spent a very busy and somewhat stressful four years with the financial crisis, first dealing with the crisis, and then dealing with the legislation to make it less likely that we were going to have another one. I then had, as is appropriate, a very spirited campaign for re-election. And my view was that I could do my job best fighting for the public policies I care about by making this my last term. And then funny thing happened on the way to retirement. A very conservative Republican majority took over the House. At that point, it seemed to me that some of the things I had fought hardest for could be in jeopardy. Financial reform, which I anticipated the conservative Republicans who are running the House would try to undermine. And, additionally, I was afraid that given the need to do deficit reduction, this very conservative majority would seek to block any increase in taxation on the wealthiest people and would seek to protect the military from any spending cuts so that the necessary deficit reduction would fall disproportionately on Social Security, Medicare and other programs that enhance the quality of our lives here at home. And I thought that if I were to announce in December that I was a lame duck, that that would weaken my chances of having influence. Ordinarily, I would not have announced as early as I did, but we are doing redistricting -- or did redistricting and the legislative leadership and my colleagues all said, look, it's important for you to tell everybody, all of us, whether you plan to run or not. And so I gave my initial view. And I was planning to run again. And then the congressional redistricting came and this decision was precipitated by congressional redistricting, not entirely caused by it. I've been ambivalent about running, not because I don't continue to think the job is important, but because there are other things I'd like to do in my life before my career's over. I was a fledgling academic. I think I have the longest uncompleted Ph.D. thesis in Harvard history haunting me. And there are a lot of things I would like to do. Some people are able to write and also pursue an active life. I am easily distracted by -- I started writing this statement, the blank page, but I want to be eau current, the blank screen. I will take almost any excuse not to write. And I do want to write and I want to write about some serious issues.</s>MALVEAUX: You've been listening to Congressman Barney Frank announcing that he is not going to run again for election in 2012, a 16-term congressman. Let's bring in Joe Johns to give a little perspective about what this means. He really has been a very significant political figure in Washington and Massachusetts, of course, for quite some time.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's true. And, you know, it's funny when you hear him talking about having the longest incomplete Ph.D. thesis in the history of Harvard. One of things that you have to say about him, and I mean and take away all that stuff about redistricting and his reasons for coming, his reasons for going, this guy is a teacher and I think he's a teacher at heart in many ways. And that has sort of aggravated people on Capitol Hill, at the same time it's really brought him laurels. And the fact is that whenever you talk to Barney Frank, when you walk away, he may insult you, he may anger, he may make you think -- feel proud depending on your political inclination, but he will leave you with a sense that you learned something from what he said. And that's what he's done on Capitol Hill. Most recently in his iteration as the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and then the ranking Democrat on that very same committee. He's been a guy who is always trying to teach. And now it sounds like he's going to try to go back to that, Suzanne, if he gets a chance.</s>MALVEAUX: And he did make history as well as one of the first openly gay congressman, correct?</s>JOHNS: Absolutely. Right. And that's what I mean by being a teacher. He's taught this country so much about the gay community in the United States and what it means to be an openly gay member of Congress.</s>MALVEAUX: All right.</s>JOHNS: A leader, in fact, on Capitol Hill.</s>MALVEAUX: All right, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate it.