Pressure Increasing on Frank to Resign

Pressure increased Tuesday on Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to resign from the House rather than endure the humiliation of an Ethics Committee investigation into his recent admission that he paid a male prostitute for sex and then hired him as a personal aide.

Frank suffered his latest setback when House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) declared that the Massachusetts congressman’s troubles were becoming “a stain upon the House of Representatives.”

Michel asserted that Frank probably would be judged even more harshly by his colleagues if he were not a homosexual. “Quite frankly, if I were to have a woman prostitute in my employ, for my own self-gratification, I’d be run out of town,” he said.

Rare Attack by Michel

The statement was unusual for Michel, who seldom is responsible for partisan attacks on other members, even Democrats, despite his position as Republican leader.

It followed a Boston Globe editorial calling for Frank’s resignation, a cover story in Newsweek magazine about Frank’s troubles and an appearance on Geraldo Rivera’s television show by Steve Gobie, Frank’s former paid lover.

Even Frank’s supporters, including Democratic Chairman Ron Brown, acknowledged that his problems are escalating. “The pressure is building to resign,” Brown said. “It didn’t help to have his hometown paper come out strongly for him to resign.”

But, Brown noted, Frank “did what he should have done” by calling for a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee. “Let the process continue and see what the facts are and make a judgment at the end,” Brown said.

House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) also referred to the committee investigation when asked if he thought Frank should resign. “I don’t think we should try people outside of that process,” he said.

Frank, who announced in 1987 that he is a homosexual, acknowledged recently in response to newspaper stories that he had hired Gobie as a male prostitute for $80 four years ago. He then hired Gobie as a chauffeur and housekeeper, and Gobie has claimed he operated a prostitution business out of Frank’s Capitol Hill apartment when the congressman was away.

Frank, 49, has denied that he knew about Gobie’s continued prostitution activities until shortly before he fired the younger man. He said he had hoped to rehabilitate Gobie much as Henry Higgins transformed Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.”

The Globe said that Frank, a highly respected liberal five-term congressman, should quit for “his own good, and for the good of his constituents, his causes and Congress.” But Frank declared in response to the editorial that he does not intend to step down, and friends said he was not even contemplating such a move.

Frank sought to carry out his normal congressional duties Tuesday and refused to discuss his case with reporters. He attended a subcommittee meeting in the morning and worked in his office in the afternoon, according to an aide.

Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.), a Frank ally, has described the continuing disclosures about Frank as something “like Chinese (water) torture.” But Moakley said he would not advise Frank to resign.

“Some people may resign and cut their losses, but I think it’s up to the individual member who’s being charged,” Moakley told the Associated Press. “This may very well be the thing Barney Frank is remembered for in Congress. It’s like when (former Ways and Means Committee Chairman) Wilbur Mills had his tryst with the dancer and ended up in the tidal basin.”