The life and times of Rep. Barney Frank

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) may be best known as the first openly gay member of Congress. But he has been representing Massachusetts’s Fourth Congressional District since 1981 and has a long history of speaking his mind rather … frankly. As the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, he was also one of the central architects of the $700 billion foreclosure “rescue plan.”

All of these details have been well-known for years; other details in a new biography on Frank have not been as widely reported. We talk with Stuart Weisberg, the biographer behind “Barney Frank: The Story of America’s Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman” about his book ? and the scandals, secrets and accomplishments that have shaped Frank’s life and career thus far.