What Role Did the Rating Agencies Play in the Market Meltdown?

A recent New York Times editorial asks whether sufficient attention is being paid to the role played by the rating agencies in the financial crisis that followed the crash of the aggressive CDO markets. Read the editorial by clicking here and tell me, what do you think? Should the financial reform proponents be focusing more attention on the rating agencies? Do the rating agencies bear some of the blame for the overblown CDO markets and the financial crisis that followed the market meltdown?