• Barney Frank weds longtime partner; first congressman in same-sex marriage

    U.S. Rep. Barney Frank married his longtime partner at a ceremony officiated by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Msnbc's Alex Witt reports.

    By Reuters

    Jacquelyn Martin / AP file

    Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

    BOSTON - Democratic Rep. Barney Frank wed his longtime partner, James Ready, on Saturday, becoming the first sitting congressman to enter into a same-sex marriage.

    Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick officiated the ceremony and added some levity by saying Frank, 72, and Ready, 42, had vowed to love each other through Democratic and Republican administrations alike, and even through appearances on Fox News, according to Al Green, a Democratic congressman from Texas.

    "Barney was beaming," said Green, who attended the ceremony. He added that Frank, a champion of gay rights and the sweeping reform of Wall Street, shed a tear during the ceremony.

    After exchanging their vows, Frank and Ready embraced each other, Green said. "It was no different than any other wedding I've attended when you have two people who are in love with each other," Green said.

    Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and a former chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, has been an openly gay congressman since the late 1980s.

    He is well known for his legislative acumen, including as an architect of the reforms in the Dodd-Frank bill, which U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis following the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market.

    Frank's office in January announced he would marry Ready, whom he met at a political fundraiser in Ready's home state of Maine. Ready lives in Ogunquit, where he does carpentry, painting and welding work. Frank and Ready have been involved since 2007.

    The evening wedding took place at the Boston Marriott Newton in suburban Boston, attracting political luminaries including Nancy Pelosi, top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Elizabeth Warren, who is battling Republican Scott Brown for his U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.

    Before the ceremony, Frank greeted family and friends in a traditional black tuxedo. He was tanned and appeared relaxed. News media were not allowed to attend the ceremony.

    "We're not doing any media today," Frank told Reuters.

    Frank won a seat in Congress in 1980 and said he will retire at the end of the current term. Besides championing financial reform and the rights of fisherman, Frank has been a vocal supporter of gay rights, which have been gathering support in public opinion polls and U.S. high courts.

    In May, for example, a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that a U.S. law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman unconstitutionally denies benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples.

    The ruling on the 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, marked a victory for gay rights groups and President Obama, whose administration announced last year it considered the law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it.

    Also in May, President Obama openly endorsed gay marriage, a move that will surely be a flashpoint in the upcoming presidential election.

    His Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, opposes gay marriage, saying marriage should be limited to a union between one man and one woman.

    Eight of the 50 states and the District of Columbia permit gay marriage. Several polls show U.S. public support of gay marriage rising.

    In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the country where same-sex couples could be legally married. More than 18,000 same-sex couples since then have wed in Massachusetts, according to MassEquality, an advocacy group for gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

     

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  • Joseph P. Kennedy III seeks Barney Frank's seat in Congress

    Elise Amendola / AP

    Former Mass. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, left, hugs his son, Joseph P. Kennedy III during a campaign event for Martha Coakley in 2010. The younger Kennedy is expected to announce his candidacy for Congress on Thursday.

    By NBC News and news services

    Joseph Kennedy III said Wednesday he's formally jumping into the race for the congressional seat now held by retiring U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.

    Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II and a grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said he would work hard to earn every vote and if elected would bring a "fight for fairness to the U.S. Congress."

     "I believe this country was founded on a simple idea — that every person deserves to be treated fairly, by each other and by their government, but that's not happening in America anymore," Kennedy, a Democrat, said ahead of an announcement scheduled for Thursday.

    The campaign source told NBC News that Kennedy would make a video announcement in the morning, followed by a half dozen events throughout the district. 

    Kennedy recently moved from Cambridge to Brookline, part of the state's newly redrawn 4th Congressional District. The Kennedy family has deep ties to the Boston suburb.

    Kennedy announced last month that he was forming an exploratory committee to look at a possible run for the seat.

    At least two other Democrats and two Republicans are considering runs.

    Kelly O'Donnell, NBC's Capitol Hill correspondent, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • NBC: Rep. Barney Frank to be married

    Ranking member U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) questions U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as he testifies at a hearing on Capitol Hill on March 2, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

    By msnbc.com staff, NBC News and wire services

    Retiring Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank (D) will marry his longtime partner Jim Ready of Maine, NBC News reports.  An aide to the congressman says the wedding will be in his home state. 

    A wedding date has not been announced nor are there details of the proposal.

    In 1987, Frank became the first ever openly gay member of Congress, and is now one of three. In November, Frank announced his intention to not seek re-election in 2012 after he finishes his 16th term in the seat, citing redistricting as the reason.

    Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, as well as several other states, including New Hampshire, New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Vermont. Civil unions for same-sex couples are allowed in Rhode Island.

    Frank has long been a lightning rod in Washington, known for his characteristically blunt commentary. He's been a favorite target of conservative Republicans, most recently former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested in his campaigning for president that Frank be jailed for his role in crafting policies that, Gingrich claims, led to the housing crisis.

    Ready, 42, lives in Ogunquit, Maine. He has a small business doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, welding and other general handyman services, Gural said. Ready is also a photographer. The two men have been together since spring 2007.

    Frank, 71, was attending a retreat Thursday with other House Democrats on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

    During an appearance on PBS' "The Charlie Rose Show" earlier this month, Frank said he was looking forward to leaving Congress and spending time with Ready.

    "Look, I have a partner now, Jim Ready; I have an emotional attachment. I'm in love for the first time in my life," Frank said on the show.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

  • Frank announces retirement from Congress, but not politics

    After more than three decades in Congress, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has announced his plans to retire at the end of his current term. Frank discusses what's behind his decision with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie.

    By msnbc.com's Michael O'Brien

     

    Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank announced Monday that he would retire at the end of his term in early 2013, citing his redrawn district boundaries and his desire to write as reasons.

    A longtime liberal stalwart on Capitol Hill, Frank said that he would leave the House after 16 terms primarily due to the way his 4th congressional district had been remapped as a result of Census-based reapportionment.

    "I was planning to run again, and then the congressional redistricting came," he said at a press conference in Massachusetts.

    Frank said that he wasn't particularly interested in the rigors of waging a full-fledged campaign -- particularly fundraising -- in a district that was mostly half new to him.

    As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank coauthored of 2010's financial regulatory reform law; he serves now as the committee's ranking Democratic member. Frank said he had been flirting with retirement for some time now, but was motivated to return to Congress for another term to help defend the law from Republicans who have pledged to repeal the law.

    Frank also denied that Democrats' chances of winning back the House next fall played a major role in his decision to decline re-election.

    Frank has long been a lightning rod for critics, in no small part because of his blunt comments to the press, and sometimes cantankerous engagements with Republicans. But for conservatives hoping that Frank fades into a quiet retirement, the outgoing congressman promised anything but that.

    "I'm not retiring from advocacy of public policy," he said. Frank said his preference would be to write -- perhaps on an unfinished Ph.D. dissertation -- and speak freely on issues. He said he didn't anticipate practicing law, though he suggested he "might show up pro bono someday for a gay rights case." (Frank is one of only three openly gay members of Congress.)

    At a news conference, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said that he was originally intended to seek one more term but changed his mind in part because the state's new redistricting. Watch his entire statement.

    Frank also swore off becoming a lobbyist (He would be in a prime position to cash in because of his committee position.), while taking a shot at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at that.

    "I will neither be a lobbyist nor a historian," he said, referencing Gingrich's explanation at a recent debate of his work for troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac as being in his capacity as a historian. "One of the advantages to me of not running for office is I don't even have to try to pretend to be nice to people I don't like ... and the notion of being a lobbyist, and having to go and try to be nice to people I don't like -- it would be ridiculous."

    Gingrich and Frank have sparred publicly over the course of their respective careers, most recently when Gingrich suggested that Frank should be jailed for the policies the Massachusetts Democrat had supported, which Gingrich said had effectively triggered the housing crisis.

    "I did not think I've lived a good enough life to be rewarded by Newt Gingrich being the Republican nominee. It still is unlikely, but I have hopes. I think he is," he said, calling the former Speaker's boomlet a repudiation of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.