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Barney Frank: Obama not invited to my wedding, ‘would ruin the party’

Matt Pitchford Contributor
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Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said Friday that President Barack Obama isn’t invited to attend his wedding to partner Jim Ready.

For Frank, it’s nothing personal. He just doesn’t want the president’s security detail constraining festivities.

CNS News reports that Frank would “be delighted and honored” to have the Obamas in attendance, but that he knows they would “bring the Secret Service.”

Having security for the president would overwhelm the wedding location in Newton, Mass., according to Frank. “I don’t want to be accused of having shut down the entire region for a five-mile radius on a holiday weekend,” he said.

Frank added, “dearly as I would be flattered to have the president do that, it would ruin the party to have the Secret Service, and I’m not critical of them, but they can go take their layered protection of the president somewhere else, not to my party.”

Obama’s recent support for same-sex marriage “wasn’t surprising” for Frank, who thinks that the announcement will have little effect on the election.

“If you were for it, you were already for him. That is this last increment of saying he’s actually for same-sex marriage, I don’t see how that’s going to influence anybody’s vote who wasn’t already influenced by his very critical argument against the Defense of Marriage Act,” Frank said.

So, despite the president’s support, Frank simply doesn’t “want my guests going to a magnetometer.”