Posted on 06/27/2008 7:58:44 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Add "Porker of the Month" to the trophies on Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's mantle. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Dodd its June porker for his "blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers," and for his "monstrous mortgage bailout bill that will dump ($300 billion) worth of risky mortgages onto the backs of taxpayers while lending a helping hand to his corporate benefactor."
He saved $75,000 under VIP mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial in 2003. Now his bailout package seeks to reward the most unscrupulous subprime lenders and the most irresponsible borrowers at the expense of homeowners who lived up to their mortgage obligations. Countrywide's take alone would be $25 billion.
Sen. Dodd is no stranger to awards for coziness with special interests. In 1998, he won Public Campaign's Golden Leash Award for his "egregious conduct in the quid pro quo practice of dollar democracy." In the mid-1990s, he took $910,304 in campaign cash from investment, securities and accounting firms and pushed through a bill that weakened oversight of the mutual fund and securities industries.
He also got legislation dubbed "The Crooks and Swindlers Protection Act" enacted to limit the liability of lawyers and accountants who abet securities fraud. As columnist Dick Morris noted in 2003, that bill was an outgrowth of a real-estate scandal in which "6,000 Connecticut investors were lured by inflated forecasts of earnings by Colonial Realty, to invest, and lose, tens of millions." Those predictions had been endorsed by Arthur Andersen and a law firm whose principals included John Droney, a former Democratic state chairman and lifelong Dodd ally and friend.
The most notable consequence of that bill was the Enron-Arthur Andersen scandal, which cost investors upward of $40 billion. Sen. Dodd further abetted that massive fraud by intervening on Arthur Andersen's behalf when the feds tried to prevent the firm from acting as Enron's auditor and consultant. Not surprisingly, Sen. Dodd took in more donations from Arthur Andersen than any other Democrat on Capitol Hill, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Since 1989, the center reports, the finance, insurance and real estate industries have contributed $13.1 million to Sen. Dodd's re-election campaigns, making them far and away his No. 1 backers. (Lawyers and lobbyists are second at $3.6 million.) He has repaid them faithfully with legislation that has helped make theirs the worst-performing economic sectors in America. God help the lending industry and taxpayers if his bailout bill becomes law.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Hey, do you think Dodd can get me the phone number of the Countrywide CEO??? I am so broke, I need a refinance and I want the VIP treatment!!
I am VERY happy this Dodd bailout is getting coverage, both through articles and through freedomworks.net
This is an egregious example of clear-cut bribery by banking interests that threatens to dump a solid $50 billion (and maybe, probably more) in banking losses onto the taxpayer, a quid pro quo to the tune of about $100K on the banking side for the potential upside of $50 billion, for a 50,000:1 ROI.
I get frantic about this stuff sometimes because the sheer number of absolutely boneheaded and corrupt bills proferred by a Congress that is clearly at war with US citizens, determined to extract and steal the maximum amount of taxes possible, and utterly shameless as to the blatancy of total corruption these moves exhibit. A working person simply does not have the energy to organize protest after protest of these assaults. We have a government totally driven by bribery and corruption and I don’t mind saying I often get overwhelmed by the massive scope of it. Rant off.
He should get 10 years in jail for taking a bribe. I work at a bank and there are clear cut rules on what I can accept as a “gift” from a client or vendor. We have to take a computer based class on it. Bottom line is if I accept much more than a free meal at Micky Dee’s, I can be fired.
He knew it was a bribe. But because he is a Democrat, nothing will happen to him and the MSM will completely ignore it.
No, this is one for the record books.
Porkmark
Vote him out.
Hey, great idea.
We should all call Countrywide and say: "Dodd sent me."
"You peons will never know how profitable it is to be connected," Mozilo said.
ROFLMAO
Why not double your pleasure?
Call Dodd’s office and thank him for helping you get VIP treatment.
(snicker)
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