Bush's Republican Party blamed for bail-out delay

US President George W Bush spent hours yesterday meeting House and Senate members to try and complete the deal, to ease a crisis he labelled as “more precarious by the day”. However, high-level representatives in the negotiations have squared blame for the pause firmly at Bush’s own Republican Party, which is understood to want an alternative plan. Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat, lashed out at the opposition. "Secretary Paulson has told us several times that the number one plank of the House Republican plan, an insurance scheme, will not work," Frank says....