Frank blames House GOP for breakdown of deal

[September 26, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee declared Friday that an agreement on legislation to relieve a spreading financial crisis depends on House Republicans "dropping this revolt against President Bush."

Rep. Barney Frank said leading Democrats on Capitol Hill were shocked by the level of GOP divisiveness that surfaced at a White House meeting Thursday, not long after key congressional players declared they had the broad outlines of an agreement on a bill implementing the administration's proposed $750 billion bailout plan.

Frank said he did not think that Democrats were going to see a substantially different proposal from the $700 billion bailout plan that the administration has been trying to sell to lawmakers and which has been the focal point of closed-door talks for days.

Participants in a meeting late Thursday afternoon that Bush had at the White House with congressional leaders and presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama said it descended into arguments, principally among Republicans.

"I didn't think we were going to have to be the referee of an internal GOP ideological war," Frank, D-Mass., said on CBS's "The Early Show."

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who appeared on the same show, said many GOP lawmakers dislike the proposal that has been pushed on the administration's behalf principally by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"Basically, I believe the Paulson proposal is badly structured," Shelby said. "It does nothing basically for the stressed mortgage payer. It does a lot for three or four or five banks."

[Associated Press; By CHARLES BABINGTON]

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