Barney Frank: Looking Forward to No Responsibility

After a lifetime in politics, Barney Frank is looking forward to retirement in a matter of days, as he explains in a farewell interview with Politico. “After 45 years, I’m tired,” he says. With his contentious and storied career on Capitol Hill headed for history, what's Frank not going to miss?

• The travel. "It’s a constant on-the-go," said Frank. “And that’s difficult particularly since I got married earlier this year. Late in life, but that makes you all the more eager to make the most of it. So the separation from Jim has been an unpleasant part of this.”

• Touchy reporters. "It really does strike me that people who make a living by writing rude things about other people get so upset if you suggest any criticism of them.”
• Constant crises. Now ringing phones won't mean "somebody else has done something stupid that I have to deal with, or in the worst case, something stupid I’ve done that I have to deal with. It's a freedom from responsibility after 45 years."
• And what about his legacy? “Oh, I hope they’ll spell my name right,” he cracks. And for real? “That I won’t speculate on. When you start talking about that, you either sound humble in a way that really isn’t credible, or arrogant. I’ll probably want to avoid both of those.”

Politico has a video clip of the interview here. (More Barney Frank stories.)