Barney Frank Gets Tongue-Lashing on Plane
Congressman Barney Frank endured the not-so-friendly skies Monday on a trip back east from California as a pair of doctors upset over the recent health care overhaul confronted the Massachusetts Democrat, the Boston Globe reported.
The verbal row began, apparently, when the doctors, two sisters who are ophthalmologists and were headed to a conference in Boston, began criticizing the bill -- calling it an "Obamanation," a term sometimes heard from Tea Party members -- upon noticing Rep. Frank nearby.
"They wanted to talk to me, but I apologized and said I like to read and watch on planes," Frank told the Globe. Frank said the women talked louder and then his partner, Jim Ready, told the women, "If you're trying to be bitchy, you're doing a good job."
The remark did not sit well with the women and a heated argument ensued, with some wondering if the plane would have to land before reaching Boston, witnesses say.
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According to one passenger: "The women had been drinking, and they were crying and shouting. They were clearly the antagonizers, and Mr. Frank was kind of minding his own business."
The incident, however, didn't seem to rattle Frank who quipped to the Globe: "It reminds me of the joke about the woman who's in a restaurant and Clark Gable's there. She complains to the waiter, 'Clark Gable is annoying me.' The waiter says, 'He's not even talking to you,' and she says, 'Yes, and I find that very annoying.'"