Massachusetts: Barney Frank

--Massachusetts rates high on the "Well-Being Index" (don't ask me to explain it), but the breakdown by congressional district suggests that the eastern part of the state is being weller (or whatever) than the west. Best in the state? CD-6, under the loving oversight of John Tierney. His district ranks 26th out of all 435 in the country. Barney Frank's CD-4 is close behind, followed by Delahunt's CD-10, Tsongas's CD-7, and Markey's CD-5, all in the top 20 percent nationally, and then a tie between Capuano's CD-8 and Lynch's CD-9. Further west, less well-being.

--Chuck Turner sent a message out to his supporters saying that he will run for two more terms as district councilor, but no more; he hinted at the possibility of a bid for some other office "in 2012," which is not a city election year.

Representative Barney Frank's chief of staff is joining the Obama administration, the White House announced this afternoon. Peter Kovar, a veteran Capitol Hill aide, is being nominated as assistant secretary for Congressional and intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Housing...

In a stunning display of imagination and toughtful analysis, the conservative Club for Growth has awarded its very first "Comrade of the Month" award (for a "public official or figure who best lives up to the policies of big government
and favors restrictions on economic freedom") to....

The gay Jew from Massachusetts!

BTW this is one more piece of evidence that Massachusetts has re-gained its status as the icon of liberalism for conservatives. Regular readers of this blog know how morose I was when Nancy Pelosi helped briefly put San Francisco in front -- and how proud and pleased I have been to see Barney Frank (among others) help restore us to our rightful place of honor.

The Bay Area didn't even have anyone on the list of five finalists. Take that!

Congressman Barney Frank sharply criticized how President George W. Bush's administration has spent the first half of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and said that Congress is currently keeping the administration from having access to the second half.

"We were very unhappy, many of us, with the way that the Bush administration spent the money," Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe.