Barney Frank Would Like That Interim Senate Appointment, Please


Barney Frank photo by the World Economic Forum via Flickr

After cagily dancing around the idea last month, Barney Frank has explicitly declared that he’d like Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him interim Senator while we elect a permanent replacement for John Kerry. Frank made the comments on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and was quoted by Politico:

“A month ago, or a few weeks ago, I said I wasn’t interested. It was kind of like you’re about to graduate, and they said: ‘You gotta go to summer school.’ But [the fiscal cliff deal] now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history.”

Frank says he’s told Patrick he’d like the job, but he didn’t say whether Patrick gave a response. We’re tickled that rather than play politics behind the scenes, the ever-voluble Frank has instead taken his request on live morning television, meaning that if Patrick picks anyone else, we’ll all know he explicitly chose that person over Frank.

Patrick has said he’ll wait until Kerry is actually confirmed before making a pick.

Update: At a news conference, Patrick told reporters, “Congressman Frank is a really gifted legislator, and he’d be a great senator–even on an interim basis. I have a lot of factors I’m considering and he’s definitely on the list.”