Peter Fenn

Well, so much for the predictions of a dull, boring and uneventful February. So much for the predictions that Romney’s victories in Florida and Nevada meant that he had the nomination all locked up.

Voters do have this quite irritating trait of sticking it to the Washington “know-it-all” class. What was so certain, as jabbered about on cable news talk-fests and in columns like this one, suddenly gets turned on its head. When will we ever learn to avoid being so arrogantly certain of political outcomes?

Hillary Clinton was the inevitable nominee; John McCain was dead in the Republican primary; Barack Obama was going to have the nomination sewed up after New Hampshire; Howard Dean was cruising with little opposition. On and on.

Let’s go through the possibilities for Mitt Romney after Iowa and what could have been.

1. Romney wins, Paul is second and Santorum is five to 10 points back. Romney rejoices.

2. Paul wins, Romney is a close second, the rest of the field bunches further back. Romney rejoices.

3 Everybody but Bachmann is in the mid-teens; Romney is in the upper tier but doesn’t win. Inconclusive. Romney rejoices.

4. The ultimate win for Romney — he scores with over 30 percent of the vote and leaves the others way back in the pack. Game over. Romney really rejoices.

How strange that the Iowa “win” for Romney does not result in exultation. The above scenarios would clearly have been better for Romney.

This is a very bad week for Congress. Paralysis reigns. Gridlock prevails. Accomplishments are nonexistent.

And the public gets it.

Let’s review where we are:  

1) Two hundred and eighteen members of the House of Representatives have co-sponsored legislation to prevent insider stock trades by Congress. That, folks, is a majority. But Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) forces Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) to pull the bill from getting marked up and passed. What?

I have known Barney Frank for nearly 30 years, but I have not known him as well or as long as my good friend Bill Black. Bill has written an extraordinary personal piece I want to share — Bill is a senior executive at Fleishman Hillard, a former chief of staff to several members of Congress. But, as you will see, it was not always thus.

Thank You, Barney Frank 


Barney Frank had more impact on my life than any human being outside my immediate family. I was 27 years old and adrift. I was in the final semester of UMass/Boston after a bumpy eight-year odyssey toward an undergraduate degree in political science. I had been working as a stock boy at the Stop & Shop for 11 years and was contemplating the exciting prospect of being promoted to frozen food manager at Store 431 in Roslindale, a blue-collar neighborhood of Boston. Then everything changed. 


It looks as though we are going through a version of political "Survivor" — and a lot of folks are getting voted off the island.

Republican voters have given the thumbs-down to Michele Bachmann, after a quick blip in the summer; Rick Perry cratered after his debate performances; Jon Huntsman was always too moderate and too reasonable for this crop of Republicans; poor Tim Pawlenty couldn’t survive the Iowa straw poll; Rick Santorum just hasn’t been taken seriously from the start, nor has Ron Paul.

In 2008, when I criticized Mitt Romney for being a weathervane in a hurricane on the TV talk shows, I thought he was simply trying to undo some of his issue stands from his Massachusetts days to appeal to a much more right-wing Republican audience in the campaign for president.  

The record then was pretty transparent and used against him by his opponents in Iowa and New Hampshire: changing on abortion, gay rights, gun control, even comments about Ronald Reagan. The trouble for Romney then was that most of this was nicely preserved on videotape. The early 2008 ads against him were pretty tough and pretty clear — they went to his character.

It is hard to imagine, even with the Republicans’ desperation, that Herman Cain (following Michele Bachmann) could have ever attracted so much support.

Is this some sort of suicide mission they are on? Have they totally lost their marbles that they would even consider someone like Cain, or Bachmann?

Forget the repeated sexual-harassment problems (though who can?). From the start of his campaign there has always been, for many of us, the larger question of why is he here, on stage to begin with?

Of course, will Congress act, is another question. That implies that they can, that they are capable of acting, that it is possible with the make-up of this Congress for this collection of disparate members to actually organize themselves to be able to act.

I am referring, of course, to actually doing something about the economy, jobs and the overall budget problem that is sucking all the confidence out of the room. As I write this, the Dow is down close to 400 points, after dropping nearly 300 on Wednesday.

In last night’s debate, Rick Perry doubled down on his rant against Social Security.

He called it a “monstrous lie,” reiterating his characterization of it as a Ponzi scheme. Perry has also continuously referred to Social Security as “a failure.”

Here is the basic problem Perry has: For 70 years, Social Security has been one of the most popular and productive programs to help senior citizens. Republicans and Democrats have supported it. In the 1980s, along with Ronald Reagan, Congress made changes to strengthen it. Now, few argue that changes are not needed once again to strengthen it — but not to privatize it or let states opt out. (On Nov. 4, 2010, Gov. Perry, citing three Texas counties, told CNN that states should decide whether to be a part of Social Security.)

Why is it so difficult to reach an agreement on something that everyone agrees to (well, aside from a few dozen Tea Party malcontents)?

It should not be that hard to realize the consequences of a U.S. default. It is not like this is new. There are clear disastrous ramifications if Congress deadlocks.

Let me start with a letter from the president of the United States to the majority leader of the U.S. Senate: