Frank is new target of McCain on the trail

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - Much of John McCain's stump speech is devoted to warning voters about the fiscal dangers that would accompany a Barack Obama presidency, but lately McCain has been picking on a lower-profile bogeyman to make his case.

"And he can't do that without raising our taxes or digging us further into debt like Congressman Barney Frank promised to do," McCain said last night, causing a part-time rodeo arena to rumble with boos at the mention of the Massachusetts Democrat.

Frank has found a comfortable home in McCain's speeches in the campaign's closing days, as one of three congressional Democrats McCain picks out by name as he warns his audience to resist Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches. McCain mentions Frank along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid.

For the last week, McCain has gleefully quoted from an interview Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, gave to the CNBC cable channel in which he laid out future budget priorities for a Democratic Congress.

"You know, we've already seen a preview of their plans. It's pretty simple and unfortunately pretty familiar: tax and spend. When the chairman of one of the most powerful committees, Barney Frank, says . . ." McCain said Friday night in Durango, Colo.

"Here's what he said, my friends, and I quote, 'focus on an immediate increase in spending,' we should take him at his word," McCain went on. "And when he says there are, quote, 'a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax,' it's safe to assume he's talking about you."

Frank yesterday dismissed McCain's words as "an appeal to prejudice" that he said reminded him of past Republican efforts to raise voter concerns about the prospect of congressmen Charles Rangel and John Conyers, who are black, becoming committee chairs.

"I'm flattered by this," said Frank, who is gay. "But I don't think I'm the single most important member of the House after Nancy Pelosi. There are also a lot of straight white men who are committee chairmen."

McCain's chief speechwriter, Mark Salter, shook his head when asked to respond. "We're bringing him up for his quotes," said Salter. "We're prejudiced against wasteful spenders and tax hikers."

McCain has also criticized Frank for endorsing a 25 percent cut in Pentagon spending.

"I'm very pleased it's a big priority for him to increase the military budget, tax cuts, and the deficit," Frank said. "He's being thoroughly intellectually dishonest about it. He didn't seem to mind unified control of government when it was him, Phil Gramm, Tom DeLay, and George Bush."