That time Barney Frank yelled at me for supporting a Republican

Former Rep. Barney Frank's recent death evoked memories of a humid July 7, 1999, confrontation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The Massachusetts Democrat and I testified at a public hearing regarding the proposed merger between the Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston. He was critical of both banks and opposed the merger; I spoke glowingly of Fleet and favored the merger. I was in Boston as the Long Island Housing Partnership's first president. Fleet had been one of the first banks that financed LIHP's 1989 creation — accomplished without government funding. Following my testimony, Congressman Frank confronted me in a marble corridor of the Boston Fed. Not about the merger.

Without so much as a hello Frank began, "Morgo, you're a Democrat. Why do you say all these wonderful things about Lazio?"

He meant Republican Rep. Rick Lazio of West Islip. Frank and Lazio both served on the House's Banking Committee, and Lazio chaired the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Frank said that my full-throttled support of Lazio's legislation to raise the Department of Housing and Urban Development's income limits would hurt Democrats.

"Lazio charmed you, but he's a member of the Gingrich-Hassert Republican gang who doesn't give a [expletive] about housing," Frank told me. "You're enabling those hypocrites."

Lazio had a genuine interest in housing. He was sponsoring a bill that would help the Housing Partnership make homes affordable to more Long Islanders, in line with our core mission.

Lazio's legislation was approved, and more Long Islanders became eligible for federal housing subsidies. Frank said it would hurt poorer Americans. At the time, I believed he opposed it because its sponsor was a Republican.

Frank was sarcastic and smart. He combined these characteristics with his sharp debating skills to advance issues like banking regulations and civil rights. He was opinionated in a Larry David sort of way, with a cutting wit that was often entertaining. Sometimes he seemed more intent on humiliating his opponents than persuading them. But he usually took the sides of the poor and marginalized.

His identity came under attack in 1995 when Rep. Dick Armey, a steadfast soldier for House Speaker Newt Gingrich, called Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, a homophobic term. Senate Republican leader Bob Dole said Armey "shouldn't have said it." Frank accepted Armey's apology, and Congress moved on.

Today's noxious incivility is seldom settled amicably. President Donald Trump leads the universe in blind partisanship and caustic vulgarity, and today many on both sides of the aisle mimic him. Trump has Frank's confrontational rhetoric with none of its wit. Now "team politics" make reasonable compromises nearly impossible, for compromise is viewed as a weakness or a capitulation.

It's not just in pure politics where this is the case. Go to a Long Island hearing on a proposed development, and you'll hear that builders are greedy, profit-driven predators who don't give a damn about a community's history, character or residents. Listen to developers, and you'll learn that Long Island's neighborhoods are populated by selfish, racist NIMBYs who care nothing about the region's economic or human needs.

Did Barney Frank's aggressive, partisan approach to government help lead us to the uncompromising place we are today? Yes. But Frank had admirable qualities, one of which was pragmatism. He did make deals with Republicans to get things done.

Even if he was having none of bipartisan collaboration that hot day in an august building in Boston.

This guest essay reflects the views of Jim Morgo, of Bayport, a former chief executive of the Long Island Housing Partnership and former deputy Suffolk County executive.