(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
 

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

ANCHOR ANA-COMPAIN ROMERO

He spent 16 terms and more than 30 years as one of the most outspoken liberals in Congress.

Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank announced Monday he’s not seeking re-election. Video from WCVB:

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D-Mass.): “It was always clear that I would be retiring after the next term. I will be a couple months short of my 75th birthday after the conclusion of the next Congress and I have always said I would not be serving in elected office at that age.”

Ahead of the official announcement -- news organizations trumped out analysts to speculate the reason for his retirement. Citing unnamed sources, MSNBC’s Luke Russert posed two possibilities.

RUSSERT: “Number one, Barney Frank is 71 years old. There's a lot of realization among House Democrats that they won't say it publicly, privately, it will be very difficult to win the us 2012. … Not to mention he has a long time boyfriend, Jim Ready, who the source speculated would like to see more of Barney Frank. Obviously that's something that certainly is possible, political spouses have some of the toughest jobs in American politics.”

Massachusetts lost a House seat in redistricting earlier this year, and Frank’s district gained some more conservative suburbs -- so speculation was swirling about his retirement months before the actual announcement. The Boston Globe reports, the redistricting was a major factor, but also...

“Frank’s campaign manager last year said his withering 2010 re-election effort spurred the congressman to think seriously about retirement, even saying a few days after the election that it would be his last one. Frank wanted to announce that this would be his final term immediately afterward, but decided against it...”

So his resignation is a dream come true for Republicans who’ve been trying to push him out for a while now. Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt tells the network -- it’s not that Frank didn’t think his own re-election was possible...

STIREWALT: “...you see that there may be some acknowledgement coming from the blue team that they're not going to retake the House in this next cycle.”
ANCHOR: “From our producer on Capitol Hill, Chad Pergram who counts seven Republicans who will retire and 18 democrats, that includes Barney Frank. These things don't happen in a vacuum. It suggests that Frank thinks he is not going to be winning back maybe a majority seat in the House any time soon.”

Frank is only one of three openly gay members of Congress -- and many in the media are quick to point out -- he was never shy to voice his opinion. In fact, CNN’s Mark Preston says the congressman chewed him out when he was a young reporter.

PRESTON: “The right of passage here in Washington to have barney frank make you feel this big. … Barney Frank has been a stalwart for Democratic ideals. He's been one of the best debaters in Congress. One of the biggest fighters against Republicans. … He also had controversy, Kyra. Back in 1990 he was reprimanded by the House over allegations of his association with a male prostitute.”

More recently though, he became the co-author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, designed to prevent too-big-to-fail banks. Much maligned by the right but championed by supporters on the left. Marketwatch’s Ronald Orol predicts, with Frank gone, the legislation could actually become less of a punching bag for conservative critics.

“With Frank gone, neither of the two main authors of the Dodd-Frank act will serve in the next Congress. … Jaret Seiberg, analyst at Guggenheim Partners, said Frank’s decision to step down should ease efforts to weaken parts of Dodd-Frank in the next Congress. … ‘His removal from the debate should make it incrementally more likely for regulatory relief legislation to advance.’”

In his official announcement Frank said he won’t go into lobbying after Congress, but he would do advocacy work on gay rights issues.