The Bill & Barney Show
That was good TV. Boston Herald:
The on-air blowout between Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and Bay State Congressman Barney Frank was far more entertaining TV than the VP debate - and spilled over yesterday with neither man backing down.
O’Reilly told the Herald he has no regrets about the heated exchange - though he wishes there had been no “pejoratives” - and believes his job is to “hold these people accountable for what they do.”
“I believe that Congressman Frank has hurt a lot of people,” O’Reilly said. “It seemed to me that the congressman was being extremely unreasonable in the face of the evidence.”
During Thursday’s show, O’Reilly played a July 2008 TV clip of Frank when he was asked about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward.”
O’Reilly drove the point that Frank “still went out in July and said everything was great. And off that, a lot of people bought stock and lost everything they had.” The Democratic rep argued that he said, “It wasn’t a good investment.”
A shouting match ensued, with O’Reilly calling Frank a “coward” and Frank calling O’Reilly “boorish.” At one point, referring to Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox, O’Reilly said: “Look, at least Cox is man enough.”
Frank told the Herald that O’Reilly “was so frustrated that he was losing the argument on substance that he just started to sound like a kid in junior high school.”
The clip had more than 315,000 hits on YouTube yesterday afternoon. Frank, who has gone on O’Reilly’s program before, said he wasn’t personally offended.
“He really lost it,” Frank told the Herald. “People make fun of talking to TV people, but that was just a travesty. I don’t have any great regard for his opinion. He was putting out misinformation, and when I corrected him he just lost it.”
As for going on O’Reilly’s show in the future, Frank says he’s up for it. “Either you can have a rational conversation or he can show what a jerk he is again. In either case, that’s fine with me,” Frank said.
O’Reilly said he wouldn’t rule out having Frank on his program again. “I don’t think we need to replay that,” O’Reilly said.
Full video can be viewed at the Boston Herald Messenger blog.
She left out the part where Barney called Bill “too dumb to understand.” Fox transcript:
FRANK: You are the most — you don’t listen at all, or maybe you are listening or you’re too dumb to understand.
O’REILLY: I am too dumb, Congressman.
FRANK: The fact is that in — yes.
O’REILLY: No, you hit it, I’m too dumb. You’re the brilliant guy.
FRANK: In 2007.
O’REILLY: You’re the brilliant guy who presided over the biggest financial collapse in federal history.
FRANK: Oh, no, no, no.
O’REILLY: So you’re the — I’m the dumb guy. You’re the brilliant guy.
(CROSSTALK)
FRANK: Under the Bush administration…
(CROSSTALK)
FRANK: And the fact is…
O’REILLY: Congressman, thanks very much. We got to run.
These guys have to get a show together.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:38 pm on Saturday, October 4, 2008
2 Responses to “The Bill & Barney Show”
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October 5th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Wow. What an amazing display of chutzpah. It’s incredible that one of the men most responsible for the crisis would have the cojones to take credit for the supposed solution. But then, he knows that the only national media members who will call him out are people like O’Reilly and other conservative pundits, and everybody knows they’re just wingnuts.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Barney Frank doesn’t think he’s to blame because he’s, well, progressive, and good, and means well. The truth is, all those “little people” he wanted to help have been hurt worse than if he had never pushed his socialist agenda.