Former Democratic Congressman Barney Frank died on Tuesday.

Frank had a huge impact on America's financial system, possibly more than any other politician this century.

He was the lead architect of the Dodd-Frank Act, which passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Barney Frank, there's no one like him in Congress that I've ever covered.

Damien Poletta heads the Wall Street Journal's D.C. Bureau.

He was hilarious. He was mean. He was brilliant, he would kind of slump in his chair.

Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you

would be like trying to argue with a dining room table.

I have no interest in doing it.

I think I love this job,

but the biggest problem is there are thousands of people in Washington

who earn the living by trying to waste my time.

One of the advantages to me of not running for office is I don't even have to pretend to try

to be nice to people I don't like.

Damien first started writing about Barney Frank about 20 years ago.

This was an era when I covered him really from 2006, I'd say to 2012, an era where a lot of lawmakers were

figuring out how to monetize their term in Congress and how to raise tons of money.

And he was just the same old Barney, you know, shirt untucked, you know, suit wrinkled,

always hair kind of pushed around. And he was, he was kind of an old

school guy in an era when Congress was changing. So Barney Frank died this week. And in the pantheon

of powerful lawmakers, where does Frank stand? I think he's an iconic figure. Whether you appreciated him or

really reviled him, I mean, he was a force to be reckoned with for his time in Congress. And no matter

...