IN WHICH BARNEY FRANK AGREES WITH DONALD TRUMP:

The idea of Donald Trump entering the Oval Office six months from now is something that makes Barney Frank shudder. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, upon which The Donald and Barney agree.

Well, almost nothing … except when it comes to sharpening surveillance on a walking time bomb like Omar Mateen.

Trump delivered one of the reddest of his red-meat speeches yesterday, and Frank was in meetings in Washington and did not see a rant that was anchored around Sunday morning’s massacre in Orlando, Fla. So, I quoted the following passage:

“But the Muslims have to work with us. They know what’s going on. They have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people they know are bad.

“They know that he (Mateen) was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad, but you know what … they didn’t turn them in.”

“Well,” Barney sighed, “I gotta say Trump’s argument on this particular issue is legitimate. There is a small tragic sliver that is consumed with hate that has to be focused on with greater intensity. And enlisting other Muslims to help in that effort, whether it’s with law enforcement that can go undercover, is something that has to be looked at seriously.”

For Barney Frank, the slaughter inside Pulse nightclub was personal.

“It could have been me,” said the former 16-term congressman, who stepped out of the closet more than three decades ago to earn the respect of colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Okay, so maybe he’s not ready to join Trump’s Rainbow Coalition, but the fact that Trump is saying things that even Barney Frank agrees with, but that nobody “responsible” will say explains why Trump is doing so well.