Barney Frank Admits Getting Job for Gay Lover

Barney Frank sometimes removes his teeth for safety reasons

Washington DC, May 26, 2011. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, admitted he helped his ex-lover land a lucrative post with Fannie Mae in the early 1990s.

This was while the powerful Democrat was on a committee that regulated the lending giant lending firm. But he called questions of a potential ethical conflict “nonsense.”

“If it is (a conflict of interest), then much of Washington is involved (in conflicts),” Frank told the Herald last night.

It is a common thing in Washington for Democrat members of Congress to have spouses or gay lovers work for the federal government. Frank emphasized, "there is no rule against it at all.”

Frank said he helped his former longtime companion, Herb Moses, land a job at Fannie Mae in 1991 after Moses graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from Dartmouth College. Frank said he was approached by a Fannie Mae executive and vouched for Moses, who formerly worked as an economist in the Department of Agriculture.

The executive said, "‘Herb applied for a job,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I think he’d be great. He’s an economist and he’s got an MBA,’ ” Frank said, recounting the conversation. “He was hired to an entry-level position.”

Barney Frank cops a feel of Mose's ass

Asked if he should have disclosed his efforts to help Moses land the job at Fannie Mae, Frank said: “It was widely known. It was out there in the public. It’s nonsense.”

Congressional Republicans pounced on the embarrassing revelation. 

“Just when you think you’ve heard the worst, Democrats in Massachusetts take shameless politics to a new low,” said Tory Mazzola, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“The fact that Barney Frank didn’t see this as a conflict of interest is alarming by itself, but it’s so deceitful that it really shows voters that he’s not looking out for them in Washington.”

Moses, who lived with Frank in Washington at the time, worked for Fannie until 1998, when he left the mortgage behemoth. Moses, who could not be reached for comment, and Frank split up that year over a minor dispute involving feather boas. 

Frank was a junior member on the House Financial Services Committee at the time he helped Moses land the job and served on the committee, which regulates lenders, for the duration of their relationship.

Barney and Friends

Frank wasn’t on the subcommittee that directly dealt with Fannie and Freddie Mac legislation but he once abstained from voting on a Republican amendment to limit executive compensation at the government-backed lenders.

“I said publicly that my companion worked there and I voted present. I didn’t think I should vote on it,” the congressman said.

Frank’s assistance in helping Moses land the job was first reported in a new book about the fiscal meltdown by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgensen.