Congressman Barney Frank March, 2010 Surprise! [am asking you for money. But there is a little variety in this request, which is almost certainly one of a series you have gotten from me over a number of years. I have usually written to acknowledge that I was not in dire need of campaign contributions, but I did note that I needed some funding. This letter is different. I do not think I am going to be defeated. But I have been the target of a concerted smear campaign aimed at tying me down so I am less able to do the work necessary to pass legislation to prevent another financial crisis and to protect our economy. The Washington Post called the bill we passed in December “the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.” I was pleased that Paul Krugman wrote that it made needed changes to our financial system and that it was an appropriate response to the crisis. Here is an example of why I need your support. In November, John Fund, a member of the extremely conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, lied about me in a speech, He announced that I was sponsoring legislation to allow every breathing adult in the United States to vote whether or not they met a whole range of eligibility standards, including whether or not they were in the country legally. This, Fund said, was part of a broader scheme by liberals to win elections fraudulently. His statement was not a misquote: it was not taken out of context: it was not a misreading of a more complicated piece of legislation — it was a lie with no factual basis whatsoever. The fact that this claim was completely fictitious did not prevent it from being echoed by Mr. Fund’s fellow right-wingers — Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, the Reverend Moon's Washington Times, and many right-wing blogs. I learned of this when I had some constituents angrily ask me why I was supporting this. I said I not only was not a sponsor of such legislation, I had never heard of such a bill. When my staff investigated further, they found no evidence of such a bill in either the House or Senate. exposed this example of the right-wing propaganda machine in a speech on the floor of the House on February 3", 2010 both to defend myself, but also to call attention to this right-wing pattern of introducing a lie and then repeating it in various media outlets. Paid for by the Barney Frank for Congress Committee Box 600260, Newtonville, Massachusetts 02460-9834 CoThis is of course not the only complete inaccuracy about me that is being propagated. T find myself given extraordinary powers that I did not know I had to influence Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, since part of the right-wing effort to derail financial reform is that the crisis was not caused by financial irresponsibility and a lack of regulation, but rather by a liberal plot to push more and more low-income people into loans they could not afford. Apparently, we accomplished this in various legislative ways from 1995 to 2006 during which the Republicans of course were in total control of the House. The fact that in 2007, when I first became Chairman, we quickly passed a tough bill regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (as noted by Bush Treasury Secretary Paulson in his book) makes no difference to the right-wing machine. This barrage of inaccuracy obviously has had an effect in my own district as well as elsewhere. Unfortunately, refuting multiple and repeated lies takes money. That said I have greater need for help this year than I have had in some time. So I write you today unlike in my previous letters asking that you contribute as much as you can. I promise that I will use the money not simply to refute the torrent of misinformation aimed at me, but also to expose this pattern of right-wing propaganda which has, unfortunately, been met with too little fight back from its victims. The right- wing has, I was told in 2008, decided to make an example of me because of their unhappiness with my advocacy on a range of issues. I willingly accept that challenge, for it is one of the most important battles of this decade. But it will take money for me to do it effectively and so I ask for your help. BARNEY = P.S. — This is genuine postscript about events that have happened since I drafted this letter -- not a pre-scripted postscript of the kind often put in political letters. Just before sending this letter I learned that one of my potential opponents showed up at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and made an appeal for funds and therefore it seems likely that I will be the target of a national right-wing fund drive because I have had the temerity to stand up to them.