Barney Frank- unleashed AND with a gavel

Barney Frank - my hero
THIS sort of fun is gonna be the best part of the next two (and hopefully many more) years in Congress.
THIS IS THE REWARD FOR GETTING THE MAJORITY:

BARNEY FRANK WITH A GAVEL.

With bangs of gavel, Frank lays down law

For 12 long years in the minority, House Democrats used the lazy hours of legislative debate to score political points on the ruling party, using procedural objections to make Republicans squirm before the C-SPAN audience.

But when Republicans tried to turn the tables yesterday, they had a well-schooled adversary sitting in for the speaker of the House: Representative Barney Frank.

Rep Patrick McHenry (R-NC) makes a bogus "parliamentary inquiry"

Frank, a well-known master of parliamentary tactics, banged the gavel: McHenry's query wasn't a "parliamentary inquiry," he said. Yet McHenry persisted.
How could he find out whether the bill was indeed what he thought it was, he asked Frank.

One option would be to ask the sponsors during normal debate time, Frank responded.

"The other way I could say that the gentlemen could find out would be by reading the bill," Frank added. "Read the bill and it will tell you."

Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) tries to help:

"My point of order is, the distinguished speaker, when he was in the minority, numerous times made points of order that were . . ."

The gavel came out again.

"That is not . . . comments. . . . The gentleman will suspend!" Frank bellowed, the gavel again striking the desk. "Comments on the past behavior of the speaker might be interesting, but they are not points of order."

(highlighting was mine)

There's LOTS of serious business ahead for this Congress, but seeing Repugs get hilariously slapped down is great, too.

I'm now definitely thinking of re-subscribing to cable (which I canceled a couple years ago) to see C-Span again.

MORE:
MissLaura in her comment below has a link to the clip on Crooks and Liars.

THANKS SO MUCH MissLaura, sorry I missed your Open Thread.  Actually seeing and hearing the exchange was ten times better than just reading about it. (I guess I do have to get C-Span again- I'm missing some great stuff.)

Advice to Repugs: don't even think about messing with Barney Frank when he has the gavel.  He's not afraid to use it!