Barney Frank Makes Another Funny

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) has made another in a long line of seriously funny comments, this time about the current economic crisis and the stunning lack of leadership coming out of the White House.

"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time," Frank said about president-elect Barack Obama. "I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."

If we hadn't just learned of the loss of about 2.7 million jobs since the recession started in Dec. 2007, this would be hysterical. Instead, it's humorous in the same way that watching someone slip on the ice or get hit in the nuts with a golf ball is funny - if you don't think about the suffering involved, it's quite the yuck.

Frank has layered disturbing truth inside the flaky dough of comedy here. He's exactly right - the current president is lame-ducking his way through the 40-ish days he has left to harm this nation while having Karl Rove and Karen Hughes working diligently to spin his legacy before the door has even hit him on his way out.

But president-elect Obama, who appears to be taking a hands-off position until January 20, might be fooling us all, and he may have taken the reins in his hands in his typical manner - quietly, building a framework and support organization beneath the surface, always preparing.

In any event, it's doubtful that the economy will magically heal itself on 21 Jan 2009, so plenty of work will remain. It's now a question of how deep the hole might be by the time the shovel is handed over and Obama can stop digging and start filling it in for a change.