Barney Frank feeling heat in crisis

When it comes to the Wall Street meltdown, Rep. Barney Frank is considered the engineer of the financial train wreck, a bostonherald.com instant poll shows.

Frank (D-Newton), chairman of the House Financial Services panel, is plastered with blame even more so than President Bush or former fed chief Alan Greenspan.

Some readers argue all you have to do is click over to YouTube and listen to Frank, in the fall of 2003, swear “Fannie and Freddie (are) not in a crisis!” and are “fundamentally sound financially.”

Whoops, guess not.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over by the government and are under a grand jury investigation.

More than 5,000 responders to a bostonherald.com poll posted mid-day yesterday are calling for heads to roll:

36 percent state Frank is out in front.
Bush is second with 29 percent for missing red flags.
Greenspan, now knocked off his guru perch, is third with 19 percent blame.
Former President Bill Clinton falls next with 12 percent responsibility.
Barack Obama, 3 percent, and John McCain, 1 percent, escape mostly unscathed, for now.

Herald Pulse
Who is more to blame for the Wall Street meltdown?

20% – George Bush

53% – Barney Frank

3% – Barack Obama

1% – John McCain

10% – Bill Clinton

13% – Alan Greenspan
Poll Closed: 2008-09-30
Total Votes: 7,657

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