When his fellow Democrats groaned at bailing out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion, Representative Barney Frank assured them that the pinstripe crowd would pay a price for the federal largesse.

"We have to rewrite how we finance in America," Frank, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, said in October 2008, in the moments after he'd guided the bailout to passage.

A year later, as Frank makes good on that promise, he's keeping two ledgers. There's one for Wall Street's big banks, the other for community banks and smaller companies.

After all, it was the titans of finance—Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG—whose unwise practices nearly wiped out the economy. Even worse from a politician’s point of view, they forced many lawmakers to cast votes on a bailout they fear might cost them their jobs.

"The big banks had some power before because they had some kind of intellectual prestige," Frank said in an interview. "They had the zeitgeist, this notion that 'We are the masters of the universe.' And now their reputation has been trashed."

Frank bluntly counts out the losses he's dealt to the "too big to fail" crowd. The Massachusetts Democrat fended off attacks on the Consumer Finance Protection Agency, the new regulator sought by the Obama administration. He's working to impose a fee on large banks to fill up a fund that would pay for any future bailouts.

"I can't think of a single issue where it’s the big banks alone who are going to win," Frank said. "They're going to do worse going forward."

And he proudly relates that he's been more open to smaller banks. They sought an exemption, or "carveout," for banks from being examined by the new consumer protection agency. That released more than 98 percent of the country's banks, according to Frank’s committee's figures. But the big banks account for 77 percent of all the assets and 74 percent of the deposits in the country.

The reason, Frank says, is simple. The smaller banks aren't blamed for the meltdown, and they have retained respect and political pull within their communities.

"That's where the compromises have been," Frank said. "They have a built-in grassroots network. Every member of the committee has a dozen or more community banks. They are people who are popular in their communities."

It's a blunt parceling of the winners and losers. But Frank is not known for coating his words to make them go down any more smoothly.

Frank has become the face and intellectual force behind the Democrats' handling of the financial crisis since he teamed up with Bush administration Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. His Senate colleague, Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, has often been elsewhere, starting with his fruitless presidential run, then wrestling with healthcare and seeking elusive bipartisan cooperation with Senate Republicans. He may also be distracted by matters at home. He's considered one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents in the 2010 election.

Frank, a sharp-tongued Harvard graduate who has spent his career in government and politics and seems perennially unable to keep his shirt tucked in, is better known in some circles for his withering wit and his lead role on gay rights and other liberal causes. So it might be easy to categorize Frank as an antibusiness Democrat ready to harness the outrage at Wall Street to punish business. But even his adversaries say that's never been Frank's style.

His reputation is that of a realist who brings an understanding of the marketplace to his liberal approach, and a dealmaker more interested in getting things done than making a point. He's also known as a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which could provide vital support in getting the bill to the floor and strength in negotiations with the Senate.