Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) read a prepared statement to reporters Tuesday saying that he’s in no position to judge the hotness… uh, lurid actions of fellow east coast liberal Democrat and part time Vogue wannabe, Anthony Weiner (D-New York).

“Given these circumstances, where I was myself engaged in activity I shouldn’t have been … I just don’t think it’s appropriate for me to set myself up as the judge of others,” Frank told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday.

Rep. Frank said he would not excuse himself if it comes up for a vote in the House, “but to step up and appoint myself a judge of other people based on my own past, I just don’t think it’s appropriate.”

Appropriate, indeed.

During those madcap Reagan years Barney became the poster boy of what happens when you lose sight of why you came to Washington, after getting ensnared in his own wicked little sex scandal. In an obvious display of political arrogance Barney solicited sex from a male prostitute and former Village People impersonator Stephen Gobie, and in a pathetic effort to keep Stephen from ending the relationship Barney hired him as his live-in maid …I mean aide and driver.

It later came to light after Mr.Gobie, apparently in a pique of rage, went to the Washington Times with sordid tales of running a male prostitution ring out of Barney’s dungeon…I mean basement.

While a House Ethics Committee investigation cleared Barney of any illegalities, it did find that he had used the powers of his office to grease the wheels for his boy toy. In 1990, the House voted overwhelmingly to reprimand Frank – a lesser punishment than the censure and expulsion some Republicans were advocating at the time, but still not as exciting as the spanking Barney had been expecting from several of his favorite closeted Democrats.

But, I digress.

“In my own case, I welcomed – and asked for – a full Ethics investigation, because I did think that I had been accused of some things that I did that I shouldn’t have done, and some things that I didn’t do that no one should have done,” Frank said. “I am also glad that we didn’t have camera phones back then or I would still be in jail.”

When further pressed to pass judgment upon Rep.Weiner’s’ behavior, the liberal Democrat from Massachusetts displayed his well know anger and stormed away from reporters leaving his lone press aide to respond, “Sorry, guys. I told you Barney won’t bite on Weiner.”