Category: Sean Bielat

Barney Frank Makes Me Nervous

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“[In March 1987], the ABCC [Alien Border Control Committee] had its first notable success. The CIA tipped off the FBI to a group of suspected Palestinian terrorists in Los Angeles. The Bureau arrested eight men. But instead of being lauded, the Bureau and the Agency came under harsh attack from civil liberties groups who argued that the ABCC should be banned from using any information the CIA gained from the government’s routine processing of visa requests. Congressman Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who was a strong advocate of protecting civil liberties, led a successful effort to amend the Immigration and Nationality Acts so that membership in a terrorist group was no longer sufficient to deny a visa. Under Frank’s amendment, which seems unthinkable post-9/11, a visa could only be denied if the government could prove that the applicant had committed an act of terrorism. Rendered toothless by the Frank amendment, the Reagan administration had virtually no way to block entry visas even when there was information linking the individuals to terrorist groups.”
— Gerald Posner, Why America Slept, pp. 16-17

Perhaps now you understand why, when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are wearing “Re-Elect Barney Frank” T-shirts and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Democrats, I get worried. I get nervous.

By the way, I’m available for public radio appearances. Also weddings, birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs.

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS
Let’s Worry About Civil Rights for Terrorists
After We Kill Every Last One of Them

Desperate Barney Frank Now Begging for More Democratic Baby-Killer Money

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“A vote for me is a vote to save your right to destroy your inconvenient unborn children.”
— Barney Frank

Oh. Wait. Barney didn’t actually say that. But as Pundette says, that’s what he meant when he said this:

My opponent, Sean Bielat, supports the reversal of Roe v. Wade. When asked by a reporter whether he would allow abortion in the case of rape or incest, he refused to answer. On a questionnaire by the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, he agreed with every position taken by that organization.

In other words, Barney believes that Bielat’s unapologetic pro-life stance is a political liability. OK, so let me ask this question: How many faithful Catholics in the 4th District?

How many of those Catholics have voted for Barney Frank in the past? How many Catholic voters in the 4th District know that Sean Bielat is Catholic, and that Barney Frank is sending out fundraising letters attacking Bielat for supporting the Catholic pro-life position?

Look, I remember the Scott Brown campaign. I remember how Martha Coakley lashed herself to the mast on the pro-abortion position. And I remember talking to Catholic Democrats — including elected Democratic public officials — who told me they were voting for Scott Brown.

Some Republicans want to pretend that pro-life voters don’t matter, but in a place like Massachusetts, the Democrat who alienates Catholics on the abortion issue is taking a huge risk if he ever finds himself facing a strong Republican challenger with the courage to stand up and say, “I believe in the right to life.”

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS

Barney Frank Is Scared, and He Hasn’t Even Seen Ladd Ehlinger’s Next Video

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When an incumbent congressman has to lend money to his own campaign, the crisis must be very dire indeed. Allahpundit wonders, “What on earth are his internal polls showing him . . . ?”

Hey, when a congressman and his heckler boyfriend fly to the Virgin Islands aboard the private jet of a hedge-fund billionaire in the midst of an economic apocalypse the congressman arguably helped cause . . .

Do you really need polls to tell you that might hurt his chances for re-election? Yeah, I know it’s Massachusetts, but the economy’s in a ditch, and Barney’s up there sippin’ on a Slurpee, so to to speak.

There may be limits even to the credulity of Massachusetts liberals. This ad is now airing on Boston-area TV:

And that’s merely the standard-issue TV ad. Just wait until you see the next Ladd Ehlinger production. Furthermore, as it appears we’re nearing a truly apocalyptic meltdown for the Democrats, I’ll point out a couple more targets of opportunity: John “Married to the Mob” Tierney’s 6th District GOP opponent Bill Hudak is having a money-bomb, and Jim “The Constitution Is Wrong” McGovern’s 3rd District GOP challenger Marty Lamb could use some help, too.

Misery loves company. Help spread the Democrat pain in Massachusetts, so Barney doesn’t suffer alone.

At Bielat HQ, Ready for the Road Trip

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NEWTON, Mass. — Here at Sean Bielat campaign headquarters on a Saturday afternoon, Ace of Spades and several of his readers are running the phone banks: “Hey, my name’s Ace. Would you like Sean Bielat to build you a robot?”

The big news today is that Sean Bielat is the top fundraiser in Massachusetts:

In a sign that he has caught the attention of Republicans in Massachusetts and beyond, GOP congressional hopeful Sean Bielat outraised every congressional candidate in the state in the latest reporting period — including his opponent, longtime US Representative Barney Frank — according to newly released campaign finance filings in most races.
Buoyed by repeated appearances on national television and conservative talk radio, Bielat, of Brookline, raised $379,000 between Aug. 25 and the end of September, exceeding the $317,000 raised by Frank, a 15-term incumbent, Federal Election Commission records show. . . .

Which goes to show the power of conservative New Media. It wasn’t the GOP Establishment or “secret foreign donors” who turned the Bielat campaign into a nationwide crusade. It was bloggers and their readers who struck the spark, and the excitement is now a wildfire.

Now it’s time to spread the fire. Pete Da Tech Guy and I are leaving this evening for a road trip across New York state and Pennsylvania down to Maryland. We’ll be stopping along the way to cover several congressional campaigns. Pete’s still about $250 short of his fundraising goal for the trip, so please go hit Da Tip Jar.

Pete was just downtown for President Obama’s rally with Deval Patrick, and I just got word that the streets of downtown Newton have been blocked off by police, which means Obama is coming here.

UPDATE: Obama is having a private fundraiser at the West Newton home of Ralph de la Torre. Da Tech Guy tells me Obama drew about 8,000 in downtown Boston, which is substantially less than the average crowd for Sarah Palin.

UPDATE II: There was a rally for Sean Bielat with Howie Carr today in Foxboro:

UPDATE III: OK, I’ve mapped out the first day of our trip. We’ll be in NY-22 Sunday morning for a pancake breakfast with George Phillips, then swing by Phillips HQ near Binghamton before making a trip up to the vicinity of Syracuse for an evening event with NY-25 candidate Ann Marie Buerkle. After that, we’ll hit the road three hours south to Pennsylvania.

Now we’re about to hit the road. Pete insists we must stop by his house in Fitchburg to enjoy some traditional Sicilian cuisine. Good-bye from Boston. If you can’t hit Pete’s tip-jar, feel free to hit mine.

UPDATE IV: Last update from Boston, where Obama spoke today:

“The reason I came today isn’t just because Deval has been there for me as a friend, but because he continues to inspire me as a leader at a time when too many folks bow to the politics of the moment,” Obama said at a campaign rally for Patrick in Boston. “He represents the politics of conscience and conviction in an age of too much cynicism.”
Obama admitted that he’s sometimes on his Blackberry backstage when he attends events for candidates, but “when Deval speaks, I listen.”

Obviously, Deval has been telling Obama to destroy the American Dream — and Obama listened!

Barney Frank’s Self-Created Problem

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BOSTON — Scapegoating other people for your problems is a psychological defense mechanism that allows the narcissist to resolve his cognitive dissonance, to wit: “I think I’m wonderful, but not everyone seems to share this perception and I need to distract them (and myself) from evidence that I’m not as wonderful as I’d like everyone to think I am. Therefore, someone else must be blamed for my errors, and anyone who calls attention to my flaws must be ignored or shouted down.”

Such is the psychodrama being played out in the 4th Congressional District. My latest article at The American Spectator:

Debbie still remembers the moment more than a year ago when she decided to devote herself to defeating Barney Frank.
“The way he talked to his constituents, it just turned my stomach,” Debbie said, talking about an August 2009 town-hall event in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, attended by some 500 citizens who overwhelmingly opposed the health-care bill that was then working its way through Congress. “I said to my husband, ‘I don’t care who’s running against him, I’ll work for them — and I’ll work my heart out.'”
True to her vow, Debbie was working her heart out Tuesday afternoon at a phone bank in the Norton, Massachusetts office of the Republican challenger who is giving the 14-term incumbent the biggest fight of his career.
Sean Bielat has first-hand knowledge of Barney Frank’s stomach-turning arrogance. Bielat debated Frank three times in the past two days, although “debate” is perhaps not the correct word. Frank does not debate, he lectures, and no matter what outrageous claims he makes, his opponent cannot be permitted to object.
“Mr. Bielat, please stop interrupting me,” Frank said during a Monday debate on Boston’s WRKO radio, after the Republican had objected to one of Frank’s numerous distortions. Before the debate was over, as Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller noted, Frank complained eight time about being interrupted. It was as if Frank thought he was back at Harvard — where he taught undergraduate course in the 1960s — and his GOP opponent was an impertinent sophomore.
Bielat yesterday summed up Frank’s attitude: “‘Don’t talk. I’m talking. I’m the congressman. You’re here to listen to me.’ That’s the way he’s approached his constituents. That’s the way he’s approaching this race. And that’s the way he was approaching me [Monday].” . . .

Please read the whole thing. Barney Frank perceives, correctly, that he has enemies. What he cannot admit — certainly not in public, and perhaps not even to himself — is that these are enemies of his own making.

Barney made his own choices, including the choice he made when he “took a free private jet to the Virgin Islands courtesy of a Maine congresswoman’s billionaire fiance — whose company received a $200 million federal bailout.” 

Now that he is being called to account for those choices, he is seeking to externalize blame, portraying himself as the victim of his enemies. It won’t wor

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS

OBAMA COMING TO BOSTON!

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BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick’s campaign announced today that President Obama will be here Saturday for a fundraiser and public rally at the Hynes Convention Center.

Every Tea Party and 9/12 group in Massachusetts is calling for volunteers to greet the president. We remember the turnout in January when Obama came to Boston to campaign for Martha Coakley.

When Democrats have to bring the president to a deep-blue state like Massachusetts in October . . . ?

UPDATE: There are rumors that Barney Frank, concerned about Sean Bielat’s insurgency in the 4th District, has asked Obama to make an appearance in the Newton area. Please give to the Bielat money-bomb at Bye Bye Barney!

UPDATE II: Obama’s Boston visit could be another omen of the Democrat mass-extinction event coming Nov. 2.

Given how disappointed and disillusioned Obama’s supporters are, my slow-typing friend Pete Da Tech Guy thinks Obama will actually hurt Democrats here:

But what do I know? I’m just a fat guy in a fedora.

Speaking of fat guys: Bye Bye Barney!

Barney Frank’s Pals Fannie and Freddie Helped Cause the Foreclosure Crisis

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A very simple question: “[A]ren’t there a lot of seat-warmers at Fannie and Freddie who collect their salaries for the express purpose of reading mortgage documents?”

Doug Ross calls our attention to the role of these “government-sponsored entities” in the massive screw-up of mortgage paperwork that now threatens to freeze the entire U.S. housing market:

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters and the rest of the social engineering geniuses who protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from regulatory oversight . . . should be serving life sentences in Leavenworth.

OK, but first let’s get them out of Congress.

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS

VIDEO: Barney Frank ‘Debates’ Bielat

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BOSTON — Here are two segments from last night’s 4th District debate on New England Cable News. First, on Social Security:

Next on economic policy:

Now, there are a couple of things we need to point out here: First, the host Jim Braude is about as neutral and objective as John Kerry. You’ll notice that Barney is allowed to ramble on and on without any apparent limit. Second, Barney has an awful habit of describing his opponent’s position in tendentious ways: “What he wants to do is so-and-so” — a complete distortion, but when Bielat tries to point out the distortion, Barney gets all offended, as if Bielat has no right to speak for himself.

As I noted of Monday morning’s radio debate, Barney kept filibustering and complaining about Bielat interrupting him. Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller counted eight different occasions where Barney did his “don’t interrupt me” act. Ed Morrissey has video of the WRKO radio debate.

Barney comes off as bossy, thin-skinned and arrogant. Partisan Democrats, of course, perceive this as Barney being tough — He’s not going to let that stupid Republican push him around! — as if a hectoring self-righteous manner of argument were synonymous with “toughness.”

In any other year, Barney would be cruising to re-election, but when unemployment in some 4th District towns is at 14 percent, all that talk, talk, talk starts getting on people’s nerves.

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS
It’s the Only Way to Make Barney Frank Shut Up