That caused the audience to let out a collective gasp rather than a laugh.

He ended up apologizing for the joke.

And more recently he has spoken to WHDH up in Boston and said:

Which is a pretty funny statement coming from a man who just sat by idly and watched while Dick Armey apologized for accidentally calling him "Barney Fag".

Mr. Frank/Fag didn't seem too terribly concerned about "hypersensitivity" back then (the mid-90s).

But hey, when it's his ox that's getting gored, suddenly hypersensitivity is a baaaaaaaad thing.

Hey, what about in 1999, when an aide to the then DC mayor Anthony Williams used the word "niggardly" in a meeting?

There was a fuss about the fact that he used the word "niggardly" because it sounds like... well, you know.

But it has absolutely no racist connotation. It just means "stingy".

The aide ended up resigning because people were so hypersensitive about the use of that word.

The aide eventually got to keep his job. But it's a shame that he had to go through that whole episode because he made the mistake of paying attention in English class.

And we don't remember Barney Frank saying anything about it.

In fact, Barney Frank is a Democrat. That whole party owns the patent on hypersensitvity.

He really has no business complaining at all.