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Like Capt. Renault in "Casablanca," I am shocked, shocked to discover that access-peddling is going on in the Obama White House. Perks for deep-pocketed donors? Presidential meetings for sale? The stale Chicago odor of pay-for-play wafting from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Knock me over with a feather. Despite the president's claimed distaste for the campaign-finance practice known as "bundling" (rounding up contributions from friends, business associates and employees), the House of Obama has been a bundlers' paradise from Day One. A new Washington Times report just confirms the obvious: It's business as usual in the era of Hope and Change. O's...

October 30, 2009 President Obama Alleged To Have Given White House Perks To Top Donors Tim Reid Senior Republicans demanded an investigation yesterday into reports that President Obama has given financial donors perks such as use of the White House cinema, golf games with the Commander-in-Chief and even the chance to shape policy. The allegations that Mr Obama may have carried on the practice of rewarding top donors — Bill Clinton and George Bush were criticised for it — was also condemned by campaignfinance watchdogs. They said that the President appeared to have reneged on his promise to change the...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records

Donors got access to bowling alley, WH movies, Messina It turns out that the White House-complex bowling alley might be the new Lincoln Bedroom. [Getting Dem pushback on the lede -- the argument being that the perks weren't part of a formal fundraising program like the Clintons' Lincoln bedroom arrangement.] Matthew Mosk of the Washington Times sifts the records and finds that President Obama's high-rolling donors got access to a ten-pin alley, the White House movie theater and the Oval. The big shots were also treated to an in-person West Coast briefing on health care reform by Jim Messina, one...

High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior officials and use of White House facilities in exchange for thousands of dollars in donations, documents reveal. During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings. High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents...

During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings. High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times. Top donors described in interviews with The Times how they were given a birthday visit to the Oval Office and...

House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room A bitter divide over Countrywide mortgage scandal. By JAMES FREEMAN Democratic staff for the House oversight committee informed their GOP counterparts today that the majority has changed the locks on the committee's hearing room. While Republicans previously enjoyed their own key to the room, they will now have to request access from Democrats. This followed a bitter partisan argument in which Republicans refused to take down a video from their website that contradicted Dem explanations about a closed-door meeting on the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. As we reported last week, the committee...

If you think moderate Democrats are afraid of voting for ObamaCare, you should see how they react to a potential vote on the Countrywide Financial loan scandal. The House oversight committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon to mark up several minor pieces of legislation. Days before the meeting, California Republican Darrell Issa notified committee Chairman Edolphus Towns that Mr. Issa would call for a vote to subpoena Countrywide documents from Bank of America, which bought the failed subprime lender last year. Recall that, under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Democratic Senators...

For those who have studied most closely the decades of Charlie Rangel’s financial tangles and fiscal subterfuge, one doggedly puzzling question overshadows all the rest. How does Rangel have so much money and where did it come from? This is a man who draws a salary from the government of about $175,000 a year. It’s a comfortable salary, but it certainly isn’t going to make anybody this rich — especially someone living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Rangel did not inherit a fortune and did not marry one. And nor had he built some huge fortune before...

Have you ever wondered why our Barack Obama, not noted for devotion to hard work in his previous jobs as a law associate, community organizer, state senator, and U.S. senator, raced around America, risking life, limb, and laryngitis, crying "change we can believe in," and begging the voters to send him to the White House as the President of the United States? It wasn't because Mr. Obama wanted to be the first African-American chief executive, and his wife to be the first African-American First Lady. It wasn't because the job paid $400,000 a year. It wasn't because he wanted to...

Once upon a time, before I began an interview with Rep. Charles Rangel, I was warned by an aide not to bring up the 1970 race in which the upstart Rangel defeated the virtually legendary Adam Clayton Powell to gain his House seat. In the intervening years, Powell had gone from has-been to icon, with both a state office building and a boulevard named for him in Harlem, and it did Rangel no good in his district to be remembered as the man who brought down Powell — a little bit of history that desperately needed airbrushing. snip There is...

Once upon a time, before I began an interview with Rep. Charles Rangel, I was warned by an aide not to bring up the 1970 race in which the upstart Rangel defeated the virtually legendary Adam Clayton Powell to gain his House seat. In the intervening years, Powell had gone from has-been to icon, with both a state office building and a boulevard named for him in Harlem, and it did Rangel no good in his district to be remembered as the man who brought down Powell — a little bit of history that desperately needed airbrushing. This, we are...

Six Democratic members of Congress enjoyed a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for a formal review of the Citigroup’s sponsorship of the trip by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and five others. The NLPC says the trip violated House rules. The purported purpose of the Nov. 6-9 junket was to attend the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference on the island of...

GOSH, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the...

August 17, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- On a day that city workers are on forced-furloughs to save money, the Chicago Fire Department confirms that it afforded special treatment this weekend to the wife of Rev. Jesse Jackson by assigning a city ambulance to drive her from O'Hare Airport to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Chicago Fire Department rules and regulations explicitly state that requests for non-emergency transports by city ambulances must be denied without the approval of the fire commissioner or his designee. That is just what happened over the weekend, when special treatment was afforded to Jacqueline Jackson, the wife of...

As the old Irish toast goes, may your sins be judged by the Senate ethics committee. Actually that's not an Irish toast but it must be the fervent hope of every politician who received a "Friend of Angelo" loan from former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. Late last week the six Senators on the ethics panel dismissed complaints against Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd with a mere admonishment about the appearance of impropriety. The three Republican and three Democratic Senators say they conducted an exhaustive probe and inspected 18,000 pages of documents. They say they found "no substantial credible...

Add Congressman Edolphus Towns to the growing list of influential Democratic and Republican VIP's who received loans from Countrywide Financial. That's significant because Towns, a Democrat, heads the committee investigating the mortgage giant's practices. And he personally is blocking the effort to subpoena Countrywide documents. Republican Darrell Issa is behind the subpoena effort. "It's really about what Countrywide sought to do, how vast it was, what they got for their millions of dollars in discounts and how do we make sure it doesn't happen again," Issa said. A Countrywide whistleblower says the company aggressively courted those in position to influence...

William Jefferson legal saga far from overby Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune Friday August 07, 2009, 8:08 PM William Jefferson faces daunting challenges on top of the potentially lengthy prison term Judge T.S. Ellis III could impose Oct. 30 for his conviction this week on 11 of 16 corruption charges. The former congressman faces a forfeiture hearing at a yet undetermined date as a result of the jury's finding that he and his family received $470,000 and more than 30 million shares of stock proceeds as a result of criminal activities. He also must deal with a lawsuit in Kentucky brought...

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd received a better mortgage deal from subprime lender Countrywide, simply because Dodd was a United States Senator. Today, the United States Senate cleared Dodd of wrongdoing. According to CNBC: In the end, it takes a lot for the country's most elite club to turn on one of its own. Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad have been cleared of any ethics violations for accepting sweetheart, "Friends of Angelo" mortgages from Countrywide. The Senate's deciding to clear Dodd comes just a couple of days after the SEC gave a sweet heart deal to Bank of America -...

n the middle of a difficult re-election campaign, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., on Friday was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee from a year-long investigation about whether mortgages he obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The committee, however, did scold the senior lawmaker for not being more careful in his dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised more vigilance in your dealings with Countrywide in order to avoid...

A powerful House Democrat who has turned down a Republican's call to subpoena records of a mortgage program at Countrywide Financial Corp. received two home loans from the lender. Some information in the lawmaker's mortgage documents raises the possibility they were made through the program, which provided loans to public figures and other favored borrowers often at lower interest rates or with lower origination fees than were available to the general public. The loans were made to Rep. Edolphus Towns of New York, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The panel's ranking Republican, California Rep. Darrell Issa,...

Two Democratic Party senators, Chris Doss and Kent Conrad have been "caught" receiving Sub-Prime "VIP" Loans from lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Despite the fact that the lender has testified that both men knew that they were getting a sweetheart deal, Senator Dodd claims he didn't know he was getting favorable rates..... California Republican Darrell Issa, has been trying for months to get Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to subpoena Bank of America for Countrywide's records (BOA bought Countrywide). Issa wants to know the details of the two...

Countrywide's strategy to regulate the mortgage industry included favoring influential people by offering sweetheart loans. That included senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd.

Corruption: Chris Dodd's teetering re-election chances weren't helped by news that the senator may have lied about not knowing he got preferential treatment as one of Countrywide Financial's Friends of Angelo program.Can you foreclose on a house of cards? Dodd, D-Conn., may soon find out after the official who handled his mortgages testified before both the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the Senate Ethics Committee that Dodd did in fact know he got sweetheart deals from a company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. As the No. 1 recipient of...

Two powerful Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they knew they got low mortgage-rate deals in a lender's VIP program but thought the special treatment was a "courtesy" or the same as "frequent flier" discounts. Both vehemently denied any wrongdoing or ethical lapse in the mortgage deals, which came to light a year ago and triggered investigations by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "I thought this was like a frequent-flier program," Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said of the special benefits. "I thought nothing of it." Sen. Christopher...

Sen. Chris Dodd is overdue for a long talk with his spokesman, Bryan DeAngelis, who wrote: “As the Dodds have said from the beginning, they did not seek or expect any special rates or terms on their loans and they never received any; they were never offered special or sweetheart deals and if anyone had made such an offer, they would have severed that relationship immediately.” That statement is false: Senator Dodd himself has acknowledged that he knew he was given a “VIP” offer from Countrywide, the disgraced mortgage lender where CEO Angelo Mozilo’s “Friends of Angelo” program traded sweetheart...

Whoa. It's looking like Sen. Chris Dodd's involvement with a sub prime-lending company warrants far more than a mere Senate Ethics Committee look-see. Or so suggests closed-door committee testimony from a fomer executive of the firm in question. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota both got sweetheart mortgage deals a few years back from Angelo Mozilo, CEO of subprime-mortgage giant Countrywide Financial.

Despite his denials, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd knew from the start he was getting a VIP mortgage break from a major lending group, an official involved in the loan testified secretly to Congress. Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) both got preferred treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp., but have maintained all along they didn't know they were benefiting at the time their mortgage packages were crafted. The two men were part of an elite group known as "friends of Angelo," a reference to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.

A look at some of the most luxurious executive perks Economic downturn might make some of these doozies obsolete Sunday, May 24, 2009 3:42 AM By Alistair Barr Running big public companies is hard work, so many executives get a little help to keep their noses to the grindstone. Use of company jets, cars and drivers, free home security, free financial-planning advice and country-club memberships are some of the common rewards. Some of these perks keep coming after retirement. Even in death, the money keeps flowing in the form of so-called golden coffins. In the midst of the worst global...

With many top notch pizza restaurants in the Washington DC area, people have been questioning the propriety of flying a chef all the way from St. Louis to bake 20 pizzas for a bash thrown at the White House by President Barack Obama. The added expense during these times of financial crisis strikes observers as unnecessarily ostentatious. “Well, you know that the President is the ruler of all the United States,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reminded critics. “It is his prerogative to exploit all of the resources of the realm. It just so happens that he took a fancy to...

"A holiday home in Connemara is at the centre of a growing row in America involving a prominent Democrat politician, a convicted insider trader and the former president Bill Clinton. The purchase of the home by Senator Christopher Dodd is being examined by the US Senate ethics committee after allegations that Edward Downe Jr, a businessman convicted of insider trading, acted as a “middle man” in the deal. Eight years ago Dodd, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination against Barack Obama, lobbied Clinton, the then president, to grant Downe a pardon."

SACRAMENTO — Eager to accommodate Sacramento's political leaders, interest groups picked up the tab for elected officials' meals, overseas trips, concerts and sporting events last year, perpetuating what critics decry as the influence game at the Capitol. Statements of economic interests filed last week by elected officials with the state's watchdog agency, the Fair Political Practices Commission, provide a glimpse into the gift-giving culture woven into the age-old system of political favors traded among politicians and their well-financed courtiers. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, for instance, accepted tickets to a Neil Diamond concert from AT&T; four tickets — valued at $155,...

The treasure trove of documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Department of Defense regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's use of military aircraft doesn't seem to prove the organization's allegation that Pelosi has made "unprecedented demands" for the flights. In fact, it appears that Pelosi uses military aircraft less often than her predecessor, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The documents cover the period from January 2007 to November 2008 and show that Pelosi made the equivalent of 20 round-trips between Washington (Andrews Air Force Base) and San Francisco. That's an average of less than one round-trip...

Below is a video we’ve all seen: Speaker Pelosi, in February 2007, denying that she or anybody in her office demanded the DOD provide her with a larger plane than the ones already provided to meet her personal-use demands. “I have never asked for any larger plane….We’ve never asked for a larger plane, this is a myth that they are talking about on the floor,” she said. “No we haven’t asked for any larger plane. …this is not my request, it is a request of the Sergeant-at-Arms… “We didn’t ask for a larger plane. Period.” Unfortunately for Speaker Pelosi, her...

The $410 billion spending bill goes to Pres. Obama to sign despite millions of dollars in pork. Another challenger goes after embattled Sen. Specter's seat. And is Speaker Pelosi using the Air Force as her personal airline? http://video.newsmax.com/?assetId=V3649827&s=al&promo_code=7BF5-1

HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the Jennifer Lopez of con gressional travel - fickle, demanding and notoriously insensitive to the time, costs and energy needed to accommodate her endless demands. On Tuesday, the indispensable government watchdog Judicial Watch released a trove of public records through the Freedom of Information Act on Pelosi's travel arrangements with the US military. As speaker, Pelosi is entitled to reasonable military protection and transport. But it's the size of the planes, the frequency of requests and last-minute cancellations, and the political nature of many of her trips that scream out for accountability. And, of course,...

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the Jennifer Lopez of congressional travel -- fickle, demanding and notoriously insensitive to the time, costs and energy needed to accommodate her endless demands. On Tuesday, the indispensable government watchdog Judicial Watch released a trove of public records through the Freedom of Information Act on Pelosi's travel arrangements with the U.S. military. As speaker of the House, Pelosi is entitled to a reasonable level of military protection and transport. But it's the size of the planes, the frequency of requests and last-minute cancellations, and the political nature of many of her trips...

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has gone from frequent flier to jet-aircraft connoisseur, with aides berating military officials to get the best planes, e-mails revealed yesterday Pelosi, who clashed with the military to get nonstop service when she flies home to California with police protection on government planes, revealed a particular fondness for Gulfstream's sleek G-5 - a plane glamorized in Hollywood films and rap videos. "It is my understanding there are no G-5s available for the House during the Memorial Day recess. This is totally unacceptable . . . The speaker will want to know where the planes...

For all his talk at last night's speech to Congress and the nation about how lavish parties, planes, and perks of company CEOs would end, Barack Obama remains silent about the luxe parties of Northern Trust, the bank that gave Obama a lower-than-the-little-people interest rate on his Rezko Mansion loan. He gave a "no comment" to TMZ: We've been calling the White House for the last day, trying to get a reaction from the Prez on our story about the lavish parties Northern Trust threw in L.A. last week. We finally got a statement back -- "No comment." Remember, this...

America's CEOs are coming under fire these days not just for their hefty salaries but also for their use of private jets, limos with drivers and free trips to posh resorts. But they aren't alone in living this lavish lifestyle -- the president of United States gets all these perks and more. And unlike some of his Cabinet appointments, he doesn't have to pay taxes on these benefits. It might be a bit of a stretch to compare today's corporate titans with the commander in chief, but some Wall Street bloggers clearly upset with President Obama's attempts to rein in...

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has finally, sort of, kind of, ended 193 days of stonewalling about his sweetheart loans from former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. At least he did if you were a fast reader and were one of the few reporters he invited to his Hartford office yesterday to review -- but not copy or take -- more than 100 pages of documents related to his 2003 mortgage financings through Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program. These are the files that Mr. Dodd pledged to make public after the news broke last summer that the Chairman of the Senate Banking...

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama ended his campaign so flush with cash he's telling staffers to keep the change - and then some. Long-suffering political footsoldiers who toiled tirelessly, at least since September, to put Obama in the White House recently learned they will be getting extra paychecks worth a month's salary, the Daily News has learned. And boy, are they grateful. "I think it's a very nice gesture for people who slaved away and sacrificed for the past year," said one pleased ex-staffer. "It was totally unexpected, and you can't believe how helpful this is with the holidays coming," the...

Tom Scott conducted the interview. WELI killed it. Now you can hear it. Scott, one of Connecticut’s leading conservative voices of the past three decades, was the last local on-air voice at WELI-AM... Scott hosted a weekday 5 to 7 p.m. drive-time talk show until Oct. 29. That was the day he taped a combative interview with U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut ... The interview focused on two controversies that have dogged Dodd recently: He received personal “VIP” loans from Countrywide Financial, a predatory lender he was supposed to be regulating as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. And...

Dodd will stay in Banking postBy PETER URBAN Staff writer Article Last Updated: 11/06/2008 10:57:11 PM EST WASHINGTON -- Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said Thursday he intends to remain at the helm of the Senate Banking Committee next year rather than take on a new assignment in the post-election leadership shuffle. After taking a day to consider his options, Dodd decided against succeeding Sen. Joe Biden as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will instead remain chairman of the Banking Committee -- a post he assumed in January 2007 when Democrats regained the majority in the upper chamber....

Senator Still Stonewalling On Curious Loans. Since the Dodd story broke in June, the five-term senator has offered contradictory fragments of explanations and intentions. Scheherazade after a six-pack of Red Bull would not have told more desperate tales. Dodd gallops the gamut from calling the allegations of special treatment "outrageous" to pledging repeatedly and specifically to release documents related to the $800,000 in sweetheart deals he got from Countrywide. Still claiming "there's nothing there," Dodd refuses to say whether his Senate campaign committee's payments of $60,000 last summer to a Washington law firm, which has a history of representing Democratic...

Dodd says his mortgages were standard Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., says he did not receive special treatment from Countrywide Financial in obtaining nearly $780,000 in mortgages in 2003. These transactions were standard transactions at standard rates, Dodd said Wednesday, adding he could say little about the two mortgages on his home because of an ongoing bipartisan Senate ethics inquiry. Dodd said he would at the appropriate time publicly release documents related to the mortgages he received when he was a senior Democrat on the Senate banking committee of which he now is chairman, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Thursday....

Chris Dodd Under Investigation for Sweetheart Mortgage Deal NBC news reports that the Justice Department has begun an investigation into whether Countrywide Financial Corp used the 'Friends of Angelo (Mozilo)' program to buy influence with Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and others. According to a senior Countrywide official who handled its VIP program, there was no way Dodd and Conrad could not have known they were getting a special deal: ...Feinberg says part of his job was to hammer home to the V.I.P. clients that they were getting special deals. "You spoke in a manner that was different...

Sen. Christopher Dodd's bewildering odyssey of entitlement, evasions and deceptions continued last week. He shed more credibility as he staggered through new excuses for concealing from the public documents related to his cut-rate mortgages of nearly $800,000 from subprime giant Countrywide Financial. On Wednesday, Dodd announced he wants to wait until the Senate Ethics Committee completes its investigation of his mortgage deals. There's no Senate rule requiring Dodd to remain silent during the investigation. There's no legitimate reason for Dodd to withhold from the public the array of documents, e-mails and letters from the mortgage swag bag Countrywide gave him.

Banking on DoddRalph Nader blames "The Senator from Wall Street" for the financial mess we're in Thursday, October 09, 2008 By Andy Bromage Chris Dodd, the populist hero? Chris Dodd, the protector of taxpayers? Chris Dodd, the Sheriff of Wall Street? Puh-leeze. How about, Chris Dodd the guy who helped steer us into this mess in the first place? Or, Chris Dodd the guy who spent a career passing laws friendly to banks and taking gobs of their money whenever election time rolled around? Connecticut's senior senator enjoyed a moment of collective amnesia last week when pundits and the press...

In early June 2008, Americans learned of a VIP loan program provided to influential politicians by Countrywide Mortgage at the direction of its chairman Angelo Mozilo – and that one of the so-called ‘Friends of Angelo” was none other than Jim Johnson, a former CEO at Fannie Mae who had just been tapped to head Barack Obama’s vice presidential vetting committee. Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. These...