RUSH: Barney Frank: this is hilarious. Audio sound bite number one. The House Financial Services Committee hearing today, and this is a montage. Barney Frank was just irritated as hell because people’s pagers kept going off and he kept feeling like he was interrupted, and he sort of loses his composure, and he’s telling everybody to shut up and be quiet and somebody’s trying to conduct a hearing, and then it’s Ron Paul’s turn. And Barney effectively shuts him down, keeps throwing fits and chastising people for interrupting.
FRANK: Will the gentleman suspend. If members (unintelligible) vote, please do it quietly out of consideration for the members who are asking questions. Let me repeat to my colleagues leaving the room, please hold your conversations ’til you leave. Gentleman may continue. The gentleman’s time is expired.
PAUL: You stopped some of my time, remember?
FRANK: Who did? No, they start when you start. We will break for the votes — all those pagers have to be shutoff.
RUSH: Now, Ron Paul was on the verge of nailing Bernanke on elements of the stimulus package. Ron Paul was on the verge of nailing Bernanke, who was the witness, and that’s why Barney Frank shut him down. That’s why Barney Frank shut him down here. But Barney was irritated anyway because nobody was listening to him. They’re answering their pages, members are getting up and leaving to go do other things, (doing Barney Frank impression) ‘Suspend the conversations (unintelligible)’ and so forth. Then there’s this. Barney Frank talking about the letter he sent to the chairman of Northern Trust, who violated the principles of totalitarian government, threw a party with TARP money.
FRANK: I have written to them and asked them to return to the Treasury at least as much as they spent on this whole affair. They are endangering our capacity as a society to pull together by taking federal funds on the one hand and engaging in this kind of luxurious indulgence on the other.
RUSH: None of your damn business. It was their money. They did not want TARP money. They took 1.6 billion. How do you know they spent TARP money on this? This is the second year they’ve sponsored the tournament at the Riviera Country Club. Folks, you have these little lightweights, who in themselves obviously are very envious and jealous of successful people and finally get to lay the hammer down on them now, and this is what’s happening.