Charles Pierce profiles Barney Frank

If that's not enough to get you to click here, check this out:

He talks to staff, he talks to the chairman. He drums his fingers. He fusses with papers. And there you can see the person who many Boston political wise guys way back thought would have no future in elected office, and not just because he was Jewish, and from New Jersey, and, they would whisper, you know, like . . . gay. They also thought the pace - the endless hearings driving a glacial process fueled by embalmed ritual and desiccated courtesy - would drive him absolutely crazy. Instead, he has been in the Congress for a quarter century now, and he has thrived there.

Via Dr. Alterman.