Posted on 02/03/2009 5:20:43 AM PST by DBCJR
After all the talk, the bashing by the media and demands from his constituents, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd on Monday offered apologies and stacks of documents to explain his controversial loans from Countrywide Financial Corp.
Dodd's regrets still don't clarify why one of the most powerful, influential politicians in Washington didn't run from a lender who promised "VIP" treatment. It doesn't begin to explain why we had to wait half a year before learning information that Dodd has had for months.
I expect more from one of the guys trying to save us from economic collapse — not to mention that it's someone who's done a good job representing Connecticut.
"We did not seek or expect any special rates or terms on our loans," said Dodd, who was joined by his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, at a tense press conference in his Hartford offices. For a story that Dodd last July said "there ain't much to," Monday marked another curious, bizarre chapter.
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There's actually a whole lot to this, thanks to the senator's stalling.
We waited seven months for Dodd to say largely the same things he said last June, when Portfolio magazine broke the story about politicians getting special treatment from Countrywide.
The Dodds met with the media for 25 minutes and then allowed us to look at — but not copy — mundane loan documents and communications with Countrywide, including an independent review of the loans that Dodd commissioned last July and internal Countrywide documents marked with "VIP" and "FOA," for the "friends" of CEO Angelo Mozilo who were taken care of.
We learned that Jackie Clegg Dodd, a former executive with the Export-Import Bank of the United States, handled the loan negotiations, and that when she asked what "VIP" meant, she was told it was only "enhanced customer service." And we learned that when Dodd was publicly saying there was nothing there last summer, he hired a firm do an independent analysis of the loans. And then said nothing for another six months.
We did not learn why it took months for Dodd to sit down and talk publicly in detail about these apparently benign loans and why he resisted demands from newspapers, magazines, television personalities and citizens of Connecticut that he just come clean.
"I kept saying at some point soon we will get to it. I was trying to find when was the right moment for it," Dodd said Monday, explaining the delay. He said the slow pace of the investigation into the matter by the Senate Ethics Committee, the election and his busy legislative schedule delayed things.
"We made the decision, frankly, just several days ago to try and get it done today. I regret that we didn't do it earlier."
What does that mean? That he finally succumbed to the fringe commentators on Fox News? If all of this was on the up-and-up, why are the Dodds going to refinance again, as they announced Monday?
If the Dodds, indeed, only negotiated loans "widely available in the market when we refinanced" and that they had no idea they were on the special "Friends of Angelo" list and that they thought being an official "VIP" meant only a friendly voice on the telephone, what on earth have the last 192 days been about?
I called Robert Feinberg, the former Countrywide executive who blew the whistle on Dodd last summer, but he declined to speak on the record. What he said to me last October is still relevant.
Dodd "got the best of the best," Feinberg told me in the fall, saying that the deal would have saved the Dodds about $77,000 over the life of the loan. It means, for example, that Dodd got a free-of-charge "floatdown" to a better interest rate and that he paid no points.
"There isn't one person that was in my pipeline during that four and a half years that didn't know they were getting VIP service," Feinberg said.
The Dodds admit they got VIP treatment. The final deal may or may not have been slightly sweeter than what the average customer might get. There's no evidence they reaped some huge windfall, but we know they were whisked through the loan process because Chris Dodd is a senator.
It took seven months before we got an explanation.
A United States senator owes us more than this.
Because he's nothing more than a run-of-the-mill crook, who has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And to use one more cliche, like father like son!
Why isnt this man being called to resign and being prosecuted for his crimes?
Why do we let the elite leftists get away with this?
These theives should be swinging from lamposts througout the financial and government districts.
Perhaps Pelosi can explain why her son receives 150K from Countrywide and never goes to work?? Isn’t Graft wonderful?
Pray for America
Not questioning you, but I need a link before I pass this info on to others.
Dodd’s up for reelection in 2010. He’s vulnerable. Is there any announced GOP candidate?
Oh really. What has he done for us?
Its all over the web. Here’s one of hundreds.
http://smalltalkwitht.blogspot.com/2007/05/clintons-tied-to-another-scandal.html
Pray for America and Our Troops
Do ANY DEMOCRATS PAY TAXES OR NOT CHEAT????
Dodd’s father was equally disgraceful.
I was screaming about Oil for Food a full year & a half before the story broke in the MSM. All of us screamed about Clinton selling missile guidence secrets to China. Nothing.
The left wants us to become more European, more global, more chic. We are, more corrupt!
You forgot Barney and his lover boy at Fannie Mae.
Dodd’s a crook, just like his dad was.
The left wants us to become more European, more global, more chic. We are, more corrupt!
We are not becoming more European we are becomeing more African with their kleptocratcies.
Or more British or French with their cowed middle classes and ravenging lower classes and immigrants
influential politicians = above the law.
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