(H/T Instapundit) Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I respect Barney Frank‘s political skills.  I absolutely can’t stand what he uses those skills for, but I recognize that Rep. Frank has them, and that he knows how to use them effectively.  To give just one example, Rep. Frank was about the only Democrat to make it through last year’s August health care meltdown without looking like either an abject coward, or a purblind fool*. You don’t have to like him – and I don’t – to recognize that.

Which is why Rep. Frank calling the Obama administration “dumb” for putting out an expectation of 8% unemployment if the stimulus passed is so interesting. First off, it’s a refreshing change from the previous narrative, which was that you were a dirty racist right-wing homophobe for taking the Romer-Bernstein graph seriously in the first place**.  True, it turns out that people were idiots for taking the stimulus as a job saver seriously, but that’s a different issue.Add this to the news that Rep. Frank now wants to abolish Fannie/Freddie (which, as Will Collier notes, is a bit of a switch) and one is forced to wonder: does he have access to polling data that apparently the rest of his party does not?  Or does Rep. Frank merely smell November on the breeze?

Moe Lane

PS: With regard to the Fannie/Freddie thing, it never hurts to review the timeline.

*I refer, of course, to his striking back against that Larouchite Democrat (found here).  Admittedly, he was responding to a left-wing universal health care advocate there, but still…

**I exaggerate, of course: Media Matters couldn’t stuff in the homophobe bit effectively enough.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.