Brian Laird on WNYC.

We learned yesterday that former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has died at the age of 86.

Frank is a significant figure in American history, at least for being the first

member of Congress to come out voluntarily as gay. That was in 1987, I say voluntarily because one

other member had been involuntarily outed four years earlier. Barney Frank was also co-sponsor

of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as it was called, which newly regulated the banking industry in 2010 to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis that was underway at the time.

Before Frank's passing on Tuesday, he had actually been making some news in his final days by offering a critique of his Democratic Party.

As he gave interviews to the New York Times and others, Frank, who was Jewish, told the Jewish

telegraphic agency, that news organization, that, quote, I held on longer than I should have,

unquote, to the degree to which he supported Israel.

He said, quote, I've been talking about the importance of repudiating positions from the left and from the far left.

That's most of what we'll talk about regarding him, by the way.

But he said, but the Israel one is almost 180 degrees. It's the one area where we are not doing

enough. And he said, it should be what the Democrats are advocating is giving an ultimatum that Netanyahu

either changes things substantially in Gaza and the West Bank, or we cut off any aid, particularly due to what they're allowing

to happen in the West Bank, that it is important morally and politically to repudiate the policy

of supporting Israel's military activity, unquote, from Bonnie Frank.

But it's the first part of that quote that he's been repudiating positions

from the left and the far left, as he put it, that's been making the most news given his history

as a progressive leader during his time in Congress. Now, to be clear, he's disgusted by Trump,

and it's not that he disagrees with the goals of the Democratic left, the way he

describes it, but he thinks their strategy is wrong. So he told the New York Times, quote,

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