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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."

WELLESLEY - Congressman Barney Frank and his opponents laid out very different plans for how to reduce the nation's growing budget deficit at a debate here Sunday.

Frank, a Newton Democrat, suggested five principles for reigning in spending. First, he said he "would begin by pulling out of that miserable, mistaken war in Iraq." The war, he said, has cost the country $600 billion. Frank also said he would reduce military spending.

"We are by far the strongest military power in the world and I think we should be," the Democrat said. "But it can get overdone...We now spend far too much on the military. We are continuing to build weapons aimed at defeating the Soviet Union."

Congressman Barney Frank said Sunday that congressional Democrats will push for another U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton)stimulus package after the November election.

It was reported over the weekend that the Democratic leadership is considering a middle class stimulus package that could be as large as $150 billion.

In an appearance on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, Frank said the reports were accurate.

"Yes we are going to do a stimulus," the Newton Democrat said.

DENVER -- U.S. Rep. Barney Frank gave U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton high marks Wednesday morning for her speech and said that the Party is unified, despite media accounts.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton)Frank (D-Newton), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told PolitickerMA.com that Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) was “great” before going into the Massachusetts delegation breakfast, which he sponsored Wednesday morning.

The speech showed the Party is unified, he said, but it didn’t keep the press from reporting on a rift between presumptive nominee Barack Obama’s (Ill.) supporters and Clinton’s that doesn’t exist.