Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank (D-You Talkin’ To Me?) is an insprirational figure.

Just ask Joel B. Pollak, who wrote an op-ed in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal headlined “Why I’m Running as a Tea Party Republican.”

Here’s my story. When I learned that my representative in Congress, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.), had called the tea parties “shameful” and “despicable” merely for protesting the stimulus bill, I suspected that the lady doth protest too much.

At around the same time that Ms. Schakowsky made these comments, I had a confrontation with Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) at Harvard University. “How much responsibility, if any, do you have for the financial crisis?” I asked him at an event, prompting an angry response.

The confrontation became a YouTube hit, and people back home encouraged me to challenge Ms. Schakowsky.

The YouTube hit (if you define “hit” as 11,743 views):

Frank, who is to common courtesy what plaid is to Bermuda shorts, comes across in the clip as thin-skinned, abrasive, and thoroughly ungracious – all qualities, he would say, that are superfluous in the political world.

Regardless, Joel B. Pollak is now the Tea Party-endorsed GOP congressional nominee in the 9th district of Illinois.

If Pollak improbably unseats incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Are You Kidding?), don’t forget to send a thank-you note to Barney, the big purple-faced dinosaur.