Barney Frank

CAMBRIDGE -- When asked what he thinks of Republican presidential nominee John McCain and other Republicans blaming Barney Frank for the country's current economic problems, Congressman Michael Capuano could only laugh.

"I absolutely think it's hilarious that it's apparently his personal fault that the entire world economy is in the toilet," Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, told PolitickerMA.com. "I wish that Barney was that powerful and that influential because the world would be better off if he were."

In the final weeks of campaign, McCain and other Republicans have often blamed Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services, for the failures Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the embattled mortgage lenders. McCain has also attempted to use Frank to warn voters of the dangers of one-party rule in Washington if Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is elected.

The arrest of state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) means we have an extended (losers) version of Winners & Losers this week. | CLICK HERE

In his second ad of the election cycle, Congressman Barney Frank criticizes Republicans for being at the root of the current financial crisis.

"The right wing is losing control," the narrator says, as footage of Frank's recent appearance on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor plays. "For 12 years the Republic majority refused to regulate the financial system. Last year, Barney Frank became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and started working on the subprime mortgage crisis, outrageous CEO compensation and other Wall Street abuses."

Frank also signs off the ad with an implicit swipe at Bill O'Reilly, the host of The O'Reilly Factor.

"I'm Barney Frank, I approve this message and the chance to be on TV without interruption," he says.

This is Frank's second ad in his re-election campaign. He is currently facing challenges from Republican Earl Sholley and Independent Susan Allen.

This ad, like the first one, was produced by local Democratic strategist Dan Payne's media shop.

Barney Frank's new ad for his re-election campaign is sure to turn heads.

The ad, the first of two ads Frank is running, features vintage footage of elephants as a deep-voiced narrator heaps blame on Republicans for their role in the current financial crisis.

"The Republicans are running scared from today's financial crisis," the narrator says, as elephants run across the screen. "For 12 years they did the bidding of the financial giants that wanted no regulation. Right wing Republicans are still carrying the high flyers of Wall Street who caused this crisis."

"One man is taking them on and looking out for average people," the narrator adds. "Barney Frank wants these giant institutions brought into line."

Frank, a Newton Democrat, is currently being challenged by Republican Earl Sholley and Democrat-turned-independent Susan Allen.

The ad was produced by local Democratic strategist Dan Payne's media shop.

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."

WELLESLEY - In a Sunday debate, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and challengers Susan Allen and Earl Sholley offered significantly different views on the causes of Afghanistan's recent deterioration and how to reverse it.

Allen, a Democrat who is running as an independent, blamed the CIA for Afghanistan's downward spiral and presented a theory that links Afghanistan's drug production with the now-accepted conclusion that the 9/11 attacks originated in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan used to be a healthy country," she said. "It has been alleged that the CIA highly encouraged the people of this country to grow drugs. And these drugs were used obviously not for food but for exportation. This is the allegation. And then when the farmers, in conjunction with the government, tried to pull back and reduce the percentage of drugs grown for exportation this country, it was decided that Afghanistan attacked the United States on 9/11."

WELLESLEY - Congressman Barney Frank and Republican challenger Earl Sholley traded a somewhat testy exchange here Sunday over gay marriage.

Frank, Sholley and Susan Allen, another challenger of Frank's, exchanged blows in an hour-long debate at Wellesley College. In one of the final questions posed by the moderator, the candidates were asked for their position on gay marriage and if judges should have the authority to determine whether gay marriage should be legal.

Sholley said he strongly opposes gay marriage and that he supports letting people vote for a constitutional amendment banning it.

"I believe having gay marriage diminishes the value of the institution of marriage," he said. "I believe it's a sacred pact between a man and a woman and it is so ordained by God."

Sholley, who repeatedly referred to himself as a Christian, also said that gay marriage is not a civil rights issue because being gay is a choice.