Bidding Adieu To Congressional Trailblazers
The drama over the fiscal cliff and the familiar up-against-a-deadline dysfunction of Congress has largely overshadowed the leave-taking of some Capitol Hill originals.
So we wanted to remember a few true congressional trailblazers whose long Washington careers are ending. They include the first openly gay member of Congress, a leader of the libertarian movement, the first Jewish candidate to run on a major party presidential ticket, and the most fervent supporter of a U.S. Department of Peace.
While many members of Congress are departing by choice (like GOP Tea Party godfather Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who is taking a high-paying think tank job) or by loss (like eight-term Rep. Leonard Boswell, an Iowa Democrat who lost to a fellow incumbent in a redistricting battle), these are some we won't soon forget.
HOUSE
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
Elected to the Massachusetts House in 1972, the irascible, irrepressible Frank co-sponsored that state's first gay-rights bill. "He was willing to speak out and be public about his sexual orientation when he was the only one," Lois Pines, who served in the state house with Frank, told us at the Democratic National Convention.
In the U.S. Senate, Frank was an advocate of affordable housing, a lighting rod for GOP criticism for co-writing the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, and survived a 1990 House reprimand for fixing a male prostitute's parking ticket.
But his legacy will likely always be best defined by traits he saw defining him as a perpetual outsider, including and especially his sexual orientation.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas
In his own words: "There is only one kind of freedom, and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator, and our liberty comes from our creator. It has nothing to do with government granting it."