Damian Paletta

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I remember this was 15 years ago.

I remember it was like it was this morning.

So the next day I go up on Capitol Hill and he comes right up in my face.

I swear he was like two inches from my face.

I could smell his breath.

I could smell the tobacco on his breath.

That's how close he was to my face.

And he said, Damien, you betrayed me.

And I mean, I don't know what he was talking about, betrayed.

I'm a reporter, but he was so intense.

It was so personal for him, like that story.

And he read every single thing you wrote and he had comments and feedback on it.

And I will never forget that moment.

Wow.

It's sort of a classic Massachusetts democratic machine story.

He kind of grew up in an era where there were people looking out for you, you learned how to do things the old school way, how to do favors for each other, how to look out for each other, and you rose through the ranks.

Well, I remember him telling me that Tip O'Neill, at the time, who was the House Speaker, was really trying to mentor Barney Frank to be a future House Speaker.

And, you know, when he came out as gay, and there was a scandal, to be sure, that was kind of associated with part of his coming out in this way.

There was a conversation between Tip O'Neill and Barney Frank that acknowledged that Barney Frank would never get to that spot, that he was smart enough to be Speaker one day, but it was because of this scandal that he had and the fact that he was gay that he would never get to that position.