Barney Frank Faces Down Bachmann On ACORN Funding

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Michele Bachmann faced off with Barney Frank on the Lou Dobbs show last night over Bachmann’s proposal to strip ACORN of any federal funds, by denying money to groups who have any members that become indicted.

In the battle of wits, the winner was…Barney Frank:

Frank pointed out that far from being a bunch of Democratic cronies, ACORN’s housing work received a lot of funding from the Bush Administration, as part of the general Republican idea of contracting out community activities instead of growing the federal workforce. As for the substance of Bachmann’s amendment, he argued that the low bar of criminal accusation against individual members would give too much power to a prosecutor to go after a group — and could affect folks such as AIPAC, whose indicted members later saw all the charges against them dropped, or even the House Republicans when Tom DeLay was indicted.

“I’m sorry, Michele, why do you keep interrupting?” an exasperated Frank said at one point. “I’m sorry you don’t like what I’m saying.”

And by the way, this was posted on Bachmann’s own YouTube account, much like another awkward TV appearance from two-and-a-half weeks ago.

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