s Massachusetts voters head to the polls for today's presidential primaries, US Representative Barney Frank has a blunt message for liberal-leaning independents charmed by John McCain.
''It's nuts,'' said the Newton Democrat yesterday in a meeting with Globe reporters and editors.
Frank was responding to a question about the thousands of independent voters who appear to be deciding between the Republican senator and Democrat Bill Bradley. Massachusetts allows independents to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.
''My commitment to democracy is shown by the fact that I would not support taking the vote away from people who say they can't decide between Bradley and McCain,'' Frank said.
Frank said that while the two presidential candidates share support for sweeping campaign finance reform, McCain is far more conservative than Bradley, and more so than many voters realize.
For the latter, Frank partly blamed the media. ''The media has made McCain into something he is not,'' Frank said. ''McCain has a record in the Congress which belies much of his campaign.'' He said that McCain voted last year for a Republican tax cut nearly as big as the one proposed by Texas Governor George W. Bush. McCain has called Bush's five-year, $483 billion tax cut reckless.
Frank said he admires McCain's position on campaign finance but was skeptical of the reformist credentials of both Bradley and McCain.
''If Bill Bradley and John McCain both are such novel transformative figures, how come none of us knew it until now?'' said Frank, who last week endorsed Vice President Al Gore.
Frank added that while he prefers Bradley to Gore on the issues of health care and defense spending, ''at no point did it strike me that he was likely to win.''
Frank said: Bradley ''in a good mood is a worse campaigner than I am in a bad mood.''
