Barney Frank
* It is quite ironic that in his first answer (interview, Opinion, April 4), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) promotes the rotted underbelly of the American political system as a symbol of its health. While Frank defends partisanship, the intellectual property bill demonstrates the complete lack of any meaningful debate on the large issues. Frank filled the airwaves and newspapers last year with cynical quips concerning sexual peccadilloes. For this he was applauded by the Democratic Party establishment.
Yet his silence, that of his fellow Democrats and of the so-called opposition Republican partisans on the intellectual property debate was what really spoke volumes last year. In fact, the loudest noise on the issue was the sound of Frank’s and his fellow representatives’ funders slopping at one of the largest contemporary D.C. pork troughs, while simultaneously soiling much of the 1st Amendment. One can only wonder what it would be really like to have a genuine opposition party in the U.S.
JOE COSTELLO
Larkspur, Calif.
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