Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) called the Republicans who won in the 2010 election the "most extreme, rigidly ideological group" to hold power since the pro-slavery southern Democrats before the Civil War, in a Sunday Newsmakers interview:
BARNEY FRANK: I believe that the results of the election of 2010 were to put people in charge of the House of Representatives who are the most extreme, rigidly ideological group to control one of the major political parties since the Democrats in the South before the Civil War.