Tuesday night saw MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow interviewing Rep. Barney Frank, D- Mass., who announced Monday that he won’t seek reelection to keep his seat in the House of Representatives. And though the 16-term liberal Democrat has been a longstanding friend of the show, the highlight came before the interview with Maddow’s www.wilshireandwashington.com/2011/11/rachel-maddows-salute-to-barney-fr…? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wilshireandwashingt on%2FroAz+%28Wilshire+%26+Washington%29&utm_content=Google+Reader”>homage to Barney’s more colorful moments with voters and media personalities, including a scene at a health care town hall where he answered one person’s question by asking “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” Another clip highlighted a moment where he chided Fox’s Bill O’Reilly for the host’s “stupidity getting in the way of rational discussion.” Frank referred to coming out as the first openly gay congressman in the mid-1980s as one of his proudest moments, followed by his part in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, but he said Monday he’s seen a great benefit to not running this time around. “One of the advantages to me of not running for office is I don’t have to pretend to try to be nice to people I don’t like,” he said.
