Posted on 06/13/2008 6:31:10 AM PDT by Brilliant
Sen. Christopher Dodd, a top figure in Democrats' response to the housing crisis, defended through a spokesman two mortgages he reportedly received under a special Countrywide Financial Corp. program that awarded preferential interest rates to people referred to as "friends" of the company's chairman and chief executive, Angelo Mozilo.
"The Dodds received a competitive rate on their loans," said Bryan DeAngelis, Sen. Dodd's press secretary. "They did not seek or anticipate any special treatment, and they were not aware of any." He declined further comment.
The news could cause headaches for the Connecticut senator, who is trying to negotiate housing legislation designed to deal with the foreclosure crisis. The final bill could include expanding a government program to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced home loans.
Publicly, Mr. Dodd has been critical of some of the mortgages in which Countrywide specialized, such as loans known as "payment-option ARMs," adjustable-rate mortgages that give borrowers multiple payment options each month. In December 2007, he co-signed a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that called these mortgages at Countrywide "abusive" because "these loans were not made on the basis of a borrower's ability to pay."
The "Friends of Angelo" program was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday and focused on former Fannie Mae Chief Executive James Johnson. Mr. Johnson resigned from Sen. Barack Obama's vice-presidential-search task force because of loans he received from the mortgage lender under the little-known program.
Condé Nast Portfolio magazine reported Sen. Dodd's participation in the program, among a handful of other Washington luminaries, on its Web site late Thursday. A spokesman for Countrywide, of Calabasas, Calif., didn't return a message seeking comment...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“That is not the Countrywide that I knew.”..............
In the Marxist Superstate, all comrades are equal - but some comrades are a little more equal.
Dodd saved $70k over the life of the mortgage. That is nothing but a bribe paid in installments.
We need a special council to investigate this issue.
We need hearings!
Whats that, Dodd didn’t know he got a special deal. Oh forget it then.
Barry is going to have to throw Dodd under the bus now. This is getting embarrassing.
Government-speak translation: "Yes, we got special treatment because we're in their pocket, but you can't prove the favors we made for them are directly linked to the special favors they did for us."
Amazing how these people who claim to know everything about everything, suddenly don’t know anything about anything..............
Me either. I'm still applying salve from the burning hoops I had to jump thru but that was way back in 1999 when they were still applying some standards.
Rush hopefully will hammer this today.
Weren’t they on the verge of bankruptcy last fall?......
“They did not seek or anticipate any special treatment, and they were not aware of any.”
Dodd is shameless...
I guess some Senators are more equal than others.
Where there’s corruption—there’s a Democrat.
Could not have said it better.
All of a sudden they have no idea what the date is or what time it is.
Maybe this is one of the reasons they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Too many sweetheart loans to Democrats.
That really does sum it all up.
We need to know exactly who the people on this “Friends of Angelo” list were. If they were getting undermarket loans I believe the IRS should go after them for understating income as a result of the discounted loan rate.
We need a list of all of them & I bet most are Democrats.
LOL!!!..........
I guess Dodd (D) and Conrad (D), should have supported Hillary. Payback is a you-know-what.
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