Barney Frank wants to be "caretaker" Senator for Mass.

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Barney Frank hasn't even been retired from the House for two days, but he's already lobbying to head back to the Hill.

Frank, who served 16 terms in the House of Representatives, asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him to the Senate seat about to be vacated by John Kerry.

“A month ago, or a few weeks ago, I said I wasn’t interested,” Frank said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It was kind of like you’re about to graduate, and they said: ‘You gotta go to summer school.’ But [the fiscal cliff deal] now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history.”

Kerry, the senior senator from the Bay State since the death of Edward Kennedy in 2009, is expected to sail through the confirmation process as President Obama's nominee to take over as Secretary of State from a departing Hillary Clinton.

Massachusetts law permits the governor to appoint an interim senator to serve until a special election is held, 145 to 160 days after the seat becomes open. Frank says he is not interested in running for the remainder of the term, just for the role of caretaker role.

Patrick, for his part, was non-committal.

"Congressman Frank is a really gifted legislator, and he’d be a great senator – even on an interim basis" he told reporters at a news conference Friday. "I have a lot of factors I’m considering and he’s definitely on the list."