Network Website Ignores Dem Affiliations in Loan Scandal….Friends in high places, and low.
Did you hear the news? Of course you didn’t!
Democratic Senators Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) “had their home loans handled by [Countrywide Financial's] VIP desk, where a team of loan officers would work out favorable terms in conjunction with [CEO Angelo] Mozilo, according to two former Countrywide executives.”
Only their party affiliations are nowhere to be found in the ABCNews.com story.
Conrad is Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and chairs a subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, according to his official Web page. Dodd serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
MM:
Want a chuckle? Google “Chris Dodd and unscrupulous lenders.” Try it. You’ll come up with gobs of press releases and sanctimonious statements from Sen. Dodd, who has milked the subprime crisis for all it demagogic worth and spearheaded the latest bailout boondoggles.
You also won’t need to look far and wide to find him commenting about controversial lender Countrywide Mortgage’s loans to American home buyers.
What you will not find are any statements from Dodd disclosing those special loan deals he received on his Washington townhouse and Connecticut residence from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, which Conde Nast’s Portfolio exposed yesterday.
Chris Dodd: Unscrupulous borrower. Pass it on.
***
Sen. Dodd needs to get his nose out of the oil industry’s business and mind his own house(s).
Ed:
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid promised us the “most ethical Congress ever” in 2006. How’s that working out? This is practically a who’s who of Democratic power brokers, in Congress as well as the Clinton administration. The Bush administration gets zinged here with Alphonso Jackson, who already resigned under an ethical cloud.
Angelo picked his friends well. Dodd chairs the Banking Committee, and the $58,000 Countrywide saved him by giving him a below-market interest rate probably served the lender well in keeping their misdeeds below the radar screen. It went well with the $21,000 in campaign contributions Dodd received from Countrywide.
Conrad saved over $10,000 under the Friends of Angelo program with the deduction of a point on one loan. He got a second loan through Countrywide when Mozilo intervened to approve the loan against company policy, on the basis of his position as a Senator. Conrad can’t recall ever meeting Angelo, but the evidence of “friendship” looks pretty clear.
For those who wonder how Countrywide got away with its mismanagement and its bad lending practices to the point of collapse, all we can say is that they had Friends in high places ” or in low places, depending on how you look at it. The most ethical Congress ever put the foxes in charge of the henhouse, and it’s the homeowners who will suffer the consequences. Will Obama throw Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad, and Donna Shalala under the bus, too, as well as Pelosi and Reid?
Ace:
Speaking of Congressmen and Senators getting special subsidized everything.
Senator Conrad borrowed $1.07 million in 2004 to refinance his vacation home with a balcony and wraparound porch in Bethany Beach, Delaware, a block from the ocean. Mozilo instructed a subordinate to “take off 1 point,” or $10,700, according to a March 17, 2004, email. Later that year, Conrad refinanced an eight-unit apartment building that he and his brothers owned in Bismarck, North Dakota. According to the former employee, the loan violated Countrywide’s normal policy of providing loans for buildings of four units or fewer. In an April 23, 2004, email, Mozilo encouraged an employee to “make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator.”
He claims he had no idea he was receiving special treatment and claims he got a “competitive rate.”
As to why he never disclosed the unit as required by law — Hey, look over there, it’s a bear in a scuba-suit!
Whoops! More Democrats involved, including Chris Dodd and Donna Shalala.
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