__I would assume, George [Will], you're going to sign on with me and Ron Paul in removing the criminal penalties on the use of marijuana and on stopping this terrible regulation of the Internet in which we tell adults that they can't gamble.
__And frankly, here is where the right wing is very much for big government. They are the ones who want to regulate personal choices. Birth control, whether or not -- we'll leave aside abortion, which is more controversial -- they want to regulate the use of birth control. As I said, gambling. Private sexual practices. Who can get married. I have never understood why heterosexuals who want to get married, believe that if I were to marry a man, they would somehow lose interest in their wives. I am not -- I am not aware of what my attractive role would be there.
__But, let's talk about individual liberty. Gambling, marijuana, personal sexual practices, what people can read -- here is the case where, frankly, it is the right wing, particularly the social issues component of the right wing, that has been the ones fostering big government.
__Can I get an answer on marijuana, George? Are you with me on it? I mea, personal liberty, if someone wants to smoke marijuana who's an adult, why do you want to make them go to jail?
__It's [the charge that marijuana is a gateway drug] been around for a long time. The gateway -- anything is a gateway to anything. That's -- and let's put it this way, that's the slippery slope argument, which is a very anti- libertarian argument. The fact is that if someone is doing something that's not in itself wrong, that it might lead later on to something else, then stop the something else. Don't lock them up for smoking marijuana.
__Come on. Paul [Ryan], this is big government. Who can I have sex with? Who can I marry? What can I read? What can I smoke? You guys on the whole -- not all of you -- but it's the conservatives that want to intrude on personal liberties there.
The above comments were excerpted from the transcript of Sunday’s ABC ‘This Week With Christiane Amanpour’ and were made by Congressman Barney Frank during a debate on ‘There’s Too Much Government In My Life’ with Congressman Paul Ryan, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and columnist George Will that was moderated by Amanpour.
Frank, who is leaving Congress at the end of this term, was obviously a very bitter man who came to the debate with a chip-on-his-shoulder. Looking downright glum from the get-go and never showing so much as the slightest smile during his entire appearance, Frank constantly interrupted Ryan and Will to the extent where it seemed to embarrass Robert Reich, his fellow liberal.
I can’t understand why Christiane Amanpour allowed Frank to keep interrupting Ryan and Will almost every time they tried to make a point. Those interruptions diminished the debate – they practically ruined the hour-long debate - and her failure to stop the interruptions was beneath the usually astute Amanpour.
All I can say is good riddance (from Congress) to Barney Frank and his pro-pot, pro-gay marriage, pro-gambling agenda. Of course, I suspect he will take his ‘Sheila Jackson-Lee cloned motor mouth’ on the speaking tour and rake in a barrel full of cash in the process.
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