WASHINGTON-House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has been a career-long politician. Aside from a stint teaching undergrads at Harvard while studying for his Ph.D., Frank has been in public life most of his career. He left Harvard-without his Ph.D.-to serve as chief assistant to Mayor Kevin White of Boston, which he did for three years, according to Wikipedia. Frank worked as an administrative assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington for one year after that. Frank was elected to the Massachusetts state legislature in 1972 and served there for eight years. In 1977, he graduated Harvard Law School. While serving in the state and local government, he taught part-time at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Boston University. In 1980, he was elected to the U.S. House and has regularly enjoyed election victories by a wide margin, winning, most recently winning with 78% of the vote in 2004. Wikipedia also describes him as a "prominent figure in the liberal wing of the Democratic party." In 2004, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian magazine honored Frank, incidentally a southpaw, with the title of most intelligent Democratic member of the House of Representatives. In the same survey, he was also named the funniest member of the House. Frank was born in Bayonne, N.J. in 1940.