The statistics on the current economic crisis are truly staggering. The American people lost one-quarter of their net worth in the months leading up to the Presidential election. The total loss to the economy exceeded 8 trillion dollars. Most shocking was the unprecedented collapse of Wall Street. As the economy steadily gave way, the largest investment banking firms - companies thought too big to fail - collapsed one after the other. 

The cause of the unnerving economic meltdown was the subprime mortgage crisis, and a key player in the debacle was Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank. Working from his position of influence and power in Congress, Frank pushed for the loosening of restrictions on mortgage lending. As reported in Focus on the Family's May 2009 "Citizen" magazine, Frank lobbied Fannie Mae to purchase new types of bad mortgages the same year that Herb Moses, Frank's homosexual partner, was designing the mortgage programs at Fannie Mae.

Frank consistently opposed regulation of Fannie Mae, and in 2003 he defeated President Bush's proposal to reform Fannie Mae by moving the mortgage agency from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Treasury Department. Had President Bush succeeded in his effort to reform Fannie Mae, the economic crisis might not have happened. Frank went on to become the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the Federal Reserve Bank, the United States Department of the Treasury, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, making Frank, along with Senator Chris Dodd, the two most powerful men in Congress.  

In 1989, it was revealed that a homosexual prostitution ring was being run out of Frank's Capitol Hill apartment.  Frank admitted to fixing parking tickets for the man running the ring, Steve Gobie, and interfering with the justice system to keep  Gobie from going back to prison. Frank also admitted to hiring Gobie as a prostitute. Gobie, a convicted felon, worked for Frank as a personal aide, and was paid $20,000, which was not reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Frank subsequently took up with a Maine native, an avid surfer, who now lives in Ogunquit. In October of last year, just prior to the vote on same sex marriage, Frank hosted an "LGBT Victory Cruise" around Casco Bay on the party boat "Casablanca" out of Portland. The purpose was to drum up support for the upcoming vote on same sex marriage. Now Frank is poised to do it again, but this time he will be joined by Maine's leading Democrats as they celebrate their win on homosexual marriage. Attending the event, and listed as a host, is Attorney General Janet Mills, sister of Peter Mills, an arch-liberal who is also a supporter of homosexual rights and same sex marriage. 

Other prominent Maine Democrats who will attend the event are Trish Riley, Director of the Maine Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance, and the driving force behind DIRIGO health insurance; Senator Dennis Damon, who introduced the same sex marriage bill in January; Senator Larry Bliss, a former homosexual rights activist who helped railroad the same sex marriage bill through the Maine Legislature; Shenna Bellows, Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union; former State Senator Ethan Strimling; Representative Don Pilon; and United States Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.

Celebrating same sex marriage with the man who helped wreck the American economy is bizarre enough; but other facts make the story even stranger. The 85 foot yacht "Casablanca" which stands ready to take the prominent Democrats on a cruise of Casco Bay is outfitted with baked lobsters and two "well-stocked bars." The interior of the yacht looks like what a native of Portland thinks Casablanca should look like, complete with palm trees sporting  loose, leafy fronds, and gaudy arabesque décor. A frequent visitor to Africa has told The RECORD that the boat doesn't look at all like Morocco.

One is reminded of another potentate who squandered the wealth of a nation,  drifting aimlessly, while lackeys  fanned her with palm leaves and flitted up and down her boat.  Her name was Cleopatra, and she sailed a golden barge down the Nile. Barney Frank merely rides a yacht around Casco Bay.