WASHINGTON — December 6, 2012 — His nameplate has been unscrewed from the wall outside his office, a new state flag already planted in the hallway. The lease on his Capitol Hill apartment has expired, forcing him to crash at a fellow lawmaker’s. And for the first time in four decades, Representative Barney Frank will have no staff to transcribe his dictated memos: that means learning how to use a computer.
With his political career winding to a close, the 72-year-old Newton Democrat says he is worn out and eager to begin a new chapter, transferring his liberal ideals and sharp tongue from the halls of Congress to the more lucrative lecture circuit.
“People will pay me significant amounts of money to do what I used to do for free. And that will be fine,” Frank said during an interview this week in a cramped office off the rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building. “I’m ready to get out of here.”
Colleagues note that the famously cantankerous congressman known for his barbs as much as his intellect has adopted a lighter, more laid-back touch in recent months. But still smarting over the redistricting that prompted his decision to retire, Frank said he holds a grudge against some members of the Massachusetts delegation and is fending off a formal send-off they are trying to plan.
Frank, after serving 32 years in Congress and eight in the Massachusetts Legislature, is already burnishing his legacy, jetting around the country speaking — for free, at this point — on marriage equality, financial reform, and getting federal money into rental housing. He’s making the rounds on political talk shows and penning — actually, speaking into a Dictaphone — op-ed columns on the need to slash military spending as the fiscal cliff looms.
“That is the single most important issue,” he said. “I’ve been propagandizing.”
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