Barney Frank is retiring from Congress next year. Father of the Great Recession, defender of Fannie and Freddie, lispie loud mouth who helped make Congress the cesspool of partisanship and inane name calling that it is today, Barney Frank leaves a long and distinguished record behind him.   

He will announce his reason for his retirement at a 1pm ET press conference.

Maybe he is retiring to go spend more time on his family business. After spending 32 years in Congress, Barney apparently hasn't spent enough time as a poverty pimp pushing Fannie and Freddie and yearned to be the real thing. Who knows? Maybe he'll enlist his old flame, Stephen Gobie. Remember him? Per the Washington Post from 1989:

Frank…confirmed Friday that he paid Gobie for sex, hired him with personal funds as an aide and wrote letters on congressional stationery on his behalf to Virginia probation officials, but Frank said he fired Gobie when he learned that clients were visiting the apartment.

You know what they say: location, location, location. 

With Frank no longer a Member of Congress, his Capitol Hill pad probably won't retain the same cache for his hooker business. 

But we hear there is an opening in the Denver market after Scottie Ewing and Brenda Stewart got out of the game. Ask Mayor Han(d)cock about that.

If hooking isn't his game anymore we're sure Freddie and Fannie would be more than willing to find some loose cash for their chief stutterer in Congress.

Then again, he appears to have changed his mind on those two:

Whatever Barney’s reason for bailing, conservatives nationwide can rejoice. Barney Frank is fwinally going away.