Far left Rep. Barney Frank, the author of the Dodd-Frank Bill and one of the top villains behind the mortgage crisis, supports the Occupy Wall Street movement so much that his staff helped organize the Occupy New Bedford protest on Saturday. They even planned the protest or coincide with a Frank speaking engagement in the area.
South Coast Today reported:
“This is just one of the many, many ways that we want to express our support for working people, because we are so viciously under attack,” said Drolet, 56.
Drolet predicted at least a couple hundred people will rally today and described the event’s timing to precede a town hall visit to New Bedford by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., as “an ideal lead-in.”
Frank has “been a great supporter of reforming Wall Street … and also has been a great supporter of cutting back on the military budget,” said Drolet, whose wife, Maria Ines Goncalves-Drolet, runs the congressman’s New Bedford office.
New Bedford’s rally will likely attract protesters of all ages and will be “working class-oriented” with demands for economic justice, according to Drolet, who is a local chief steward for the National Association of Letter Carriers. And just as Occupy Boston was bolstered by organized labor, “I expect to have a handful from my union,” Drolet said, explaining that many others will be working.Meanwhile, as a movement that purports to represent the “99 percent,” there’s also an “everyman” universality with rallies elsewhere.
“I think that the positions that are being taken by Occupy Wall Street are ones that people (have) talked about literally at their kitchen tables for the past three years,” Mayor Scott W. Lang said.
As long as the protests are done peacefully, “I think it’s very healthy and productive for the democracy,” said Lang, who said he’ll likely stop by Saturday’s rally. “I’m just another citizen who certainly will express my frustration at the nation’s inability to create jobs for its citizenship,” he said.
Also planning to attend is Sean Connell, a 23-year-old UMass Dartmouth student from Fall River and one of the organizers of Thursday’s campus rally.
Hat Tip Ken Pittman
Even more unbelievable — Barney Frank headed to New York on Thursday to raise tens of thousands of dollars at a fundraiser at the home of a senior Wall Street investment banking adviser.