4.25.2007

Hell freezes over

I never thought I'd have anything nice to say about Barney Frank, but this is refreshing:
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on Wednesday said he will introduce a bill this week to lift a ban on online gambling.

"Why anyone thinks it is any of my business why some adult wants to gamble is absolutely beyond me," Frank told a community bankers group conference.

Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he will introduce the legislation on Thursday.

Internet gambling in the United States was effectively banned last October when President George W. Bush signed legislation outlawing gaming financial transactions.

While Reuters tries to blame the ban on President Bush, it was really the work of the disastrously incompetent Senator Bill Frist, who sneaked the ban into a port security bill.

I said at the time that Frist was driving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of poker enthusiasts away from the Republican Party. The typical online poker player is male, independent, intelligent, educated, and decidedly not socialist -- in short, a huge block of swing voters who ought to lean Republican. Frist rejected these people in favor of campaign donations from gambling interests. Barney Frank is picking up Frist's fumble.

1 comment:

John Enright said...

I felt the same way - a strange new affection for Mr. Frank.

Happy Super Tuesday!