Fannie Mae

WELLESLEY - Barney Frank's two challengers teamed up Sunday to criticize the congressman for what they called his failure to properly regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage lenders at the heart of the current financial crisis.

Frank emphatically defended himself, saying his efforts to regulate the industry were stymied by the twelve years Republicans controlled Congress. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came under fire earlier this year for backing bad mortgages that eventually lead to the current credit crisis that Congress acted to remedy with a several hundred billion dollar bailout proposal.

However, Earl Sholley, the Republican in the race, called Frank the "chief architect of the mortgage meltdown."

"All of this is well documented that Mr. Frank is the key player," Sholley said. "In fact, recently former President Bill Clinton made the statement on ABC News that when he was in the White House, he and the Republicans tried to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and every time they attempted to do so, the Democrats blocked their efforts."

Former New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman defended U.S. Sen. John Sununu's (R-Waterville Valley) stance on the financial bailout and said Sununu has been at the forefront of reforms for various financial institutions.

Rudman told reporters on a conference call that Sununu offered legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac years ago but was blocked by congressional Democrats.

Related: Frank spars with O'Reilly

Republican challenger Jeff Beatty has called on U.S. Sen. John Kerry to return campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Jeff Beatty (R)According to OpenSecrets.org, Kerry has received $111,000 in campaign donations from the two mortgage lenders between 1989 and 2008, the second most of any senator.

"This is totally inappropriate and I am demanding that he give this money back," Beatty told PolitickerMA.com. "It just goes to show his pattern of taking special interest money."

The government agreed to bailout the mortgage lender this week in an attempt to shore up the credit market.

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Southgate) introduced a bill in the Senate today that would strip executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of any severance pay after they were ousted in the recent government takeover of the two mortgage financiers.

"In the free market system you are rewarded for success and punished for failure," said Bunning in a statement. "I don't think we should be lining the pockets of those individuals who were responsible for driving Fannie and Freddie into the ground on the backs of the American taxpayers. Poor management does not deserve to be rewarded and my bill would make sure that it isn't."

The two firms were seized by federal agencies this weekend amid fears their potential failure would irredeemably shake the mortgage market. That seizure was permitted by earlier legislation that Bunning also vocally opposed, denoucning the provision used in the takeover as "socialism."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A vocal critic of legislation that allowed the federal government to takeover mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) blasted the decision by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to do so as a “calamity for our free market system.” In July, Bunning criticized the legislation that permitted the takeover as hinting at “socialism.”

Independent candidate and entrepreneur David Krikiorian (I) hasn't been seeing as much attention as his party-backed opponents Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) and U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) in the race for Ohio's 2nd Congressional district seat. But Krikorian is running to be what he calls a "voice of action."

Krikorian is particularly concerned with the "financial crisis" in Ohio.

"I set out to represent Ohio's second congressional district, because I saw the financial crisis unfolding across our country, and I intend to be a loud voice for effective action," Krikorian said in announcing a letter he sent to both the House Financial Services Committee and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Krikorian's letter urged the two committees to increase funding for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in order to protect Americans from what Krikorian calls the widening banking crisis.

"Congress has been slow to act on many of the crises we are facing today, and I don't want to take any chances with the wave of bank failures that we are starting to see all over the country," Krikorian said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- During a Senate Banking committee meeting, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) upped the ante in his opposition to legislation that would give the federal Treasury the ability to invest directly into mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- institutions that previously supported Bunning's campaigns. "When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I woke up in France. But, no, it turned out it was socialism here in the United States and very -- going well," Bunning said.