Barney Frank, fraud, accused of being out of control

Gee, I dunno. An ego that's too big? Someone who's at the root of the housing crisis? Someone who engineered the sub prime mortgage crisis and claimed Freddie Mac was solvent?

Frank’s trademark flashes of anger and impatience have gained a new prominence in the past year as Frank himself has grown in importance. He’s now chairman of one of the most influential House committees, which takes up financial reform legislation starting Wednesday that is both a political and policy imperative for the Obama administration.

But now financial lobbyists — Democrats and Republicans — say privately that Frank’s actions on regulatory reform have grown as volatile as his moods. Even some of his most ardent defenders acknowledge Frank has a thin skin. And they say the usually measured policymaker is being forced into an usual position: making calculations based on political pressure from fellow Democrats in ways he never needed to in the past.