Stop the Dodd/Countrywide bailout boondoggle
Sen. Chris Dodd hopes the long holiday weekend and short attention spans will erase memories of his special VIP home loan deals as he prepares to fight for passage of his $300 billion housing boondoggle bill. You’ll recall that it stalled just before recess.
The unscrupulous borrower from Connecticut may have escaped congressional accountability, but voters aren’t letting him off the hook. New Quinnipiac Poll results put Dodd’s approval rating at just 51 percent, down from 60 in March. He’s getting all the heat he deserves, and not just from fiscal conservatives on the right.
Here’s economist Richard Parker, a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, in the Boston Globe:
Two weeks ago, the Banking Committee chairman was busy introducing a $300 billion rescue package for the subprime mortgage industry and its victims when news broke that Countywide Financial - subprime’s Enron - had given Dodd special “VIP” mortgage rates on homes in Connecticut and Washington, saving him $75,000 over the life of the mortgages. Dodd’s initial reaction was wounded outrage. How could anyone think that he’d done something wrong? After it became clear he’d known he was getting VIP handling (on orders from Angelo Mozilo, the chairman-founder of Countrywide), Dodd backtracked, insisting he hadn’t realized what “VIP” meant.
With 8,000 US families facing foreclosure daily, the $200 per month Dodd’s been saving doesn’t sound so small - and Mozilo’s own toxic reputation, especially after he admitted pocketing $142 million last year just as Countrywide started sinking like the Titanic, hasn’t helped.
Dodd hasn’t been the only one caught up in the scandal. Senator Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also got Countrywide’s VIP treatment - as did former Clinton-era heavyweights Donna Shalala, Alphonso Jackson, Richard Holbrooke, and Jim Johnson. Conrad quickly mailed off a check for the estimated value of his VIP treatment to Habitat for Humanity, and announced he was taking out new mortgages. Shalala, Jackson, and Johnson meanwhile have ducked the press - though Johnson, who was heading the search for Obama’s vice presidential candidate, had to hastily resign that role.
Dodd, however, keeps insisting - despite growing statewide criticism and a sharp drop in his poll ratings - that he has no plans to give up his VIP benefits, because he has done nothing wrong.
…The $300 billion subprime rescues package Dodd is now managing may be in trouble, with critics tarring it as the “Dodd Countrywide bill.” We voters in turn need to do a little remembering ourselves here, because this bill is the latest “rescue package” in a long ignominious history that includes corporate bailouts such as the Chrysler and Lockheed salvage operations; the savings and loan rescue; the two Mexican rescues, the Asian rescue; the airline rescue after 9/11; the ongoing bailout of agribusiness; and lest we forget, the bailout of Wall Street and Bear Stearns just two months ago.
A chief beneficiary of the Dodd bill is Bank of America, which has just bought Countrywide. If Dodd’s bill passes, taxpayers will take on much of the Bank of America’s risk of further portfolio default - a move worth billions to the bank.
Washington desperately needs to stanch the forced liquidation of millions of American homeowners. Yet once again, the benefits of its rescue efforts will accrue unequally - stacked heavily in favor of the wealthy and the powerful - because in American politics, as in Orwell’s “1984,” some are more equal than others.
Especially the VIPs.
This VIP bailout bill should be DOA. Call your congressional representatives. Kill the Dodd/Countrywide bailout boondoggle. 202-224-3121.
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Related: Housing Industry Ramps Up Political Donations
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Hey, what party are Dodd and Conrad in? The Boston Globe article strangely doesn’t say.
“Wounded Outrage”? Words cannot describe this man’s chutzpah. Where are the conservatives in Congress?
It was our Independence Day weekend. They are just getting back from Mexico.
I am the VA contact for Freedom Works. My good friends (Brendan, Matt, Nan and Lauren) over at FreedomWorks have been at the front of this for weeks. Go sign the petition here
Hasn’t Bush threatened to veto this boondoggle anyway?
sureeeeeeeeee, and he doesn’t know what honesty means either. ”
JAC”
JUST ANOTHER CRAPWEASEL
It cracks me up, usually, well 9 times out of 10 the explanations (lies) these dipsticks try to pull off are lamer than the original misstep or lack of good judgement.
OT-
does anyone know when Odumbo and McCanopaint are going to debate each other? after the conventions?
We are truly living in a bipartisan age. There are no longer Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. There are only opportunists.
What happen to personal responsiblity ? So i guess i am not responsible for my actions or decisions. Does thi mean i am not allowed to fail either ?
This is a banking bailout bill. The pin-stripe pirates of Wall Street have rigged the game to have the US public pay for everything!
From the privately owned Federal Reserve to lobbyists who inhabit our Congress, the game is rigged so every tax, fee or bailout is ultimately passed along to you and me. We’re owned by these pin-striped pirates lock, stock and credit rating.
Not to defend them, but in Boston, it is just assumed you are a Dem, and it only has to be pointed out if you are one of the rare and elusive Republicans! They are just used to working that way.
Dodd the Fraud needs to be run out of Congress. I hope the CT voters are listening. I mean, how freakin’ ignorant can you be not to know what VIP means (or how freakin’ stupid does Dodd think the CT voter is to believe something as completely lame as that excuese? The Hartford Courant ran some articles, but it is pretty much a media blackout on the air.
Now if Dodd were a Republican…
Senator Chris Dodd (DEMOCRAT) is a typical democrat crook. He sees nothing wrong in lying, cheating, smearing honest citizens, driving businesses out of the country or into bankruptcy, leaking military secrets to our enemies, lying, getting special “deals”, getting special deals for his family, lying, using his position of power to influence legal investigations either against his enemies or for his friends,more lying. The guy is a scumbag, racist, half wit, crook. Like Sen. Di Feinstein, (DEMOCRAT), who awarded her husband billions of dollars of war contracts, Senator Clinton, (DEMOCRAT) too much criminal activity to mention, Sen, Harry Reid, (DEMOCRAT) who made millions in dirty Vegas land deals, or BO and his yet to be released documentation of double dealing with his close friends on their way to Federal Prison, these filth see their primary role in Congress as raping America and damaging our businesses and citizens. Did I mention Sen. Ted Kennedy, (DEMOCRAT), thankfully soon to die and finally get to explain what did happen to Mary Jo? The Democrats have done more damage to America than al qaeda, starting with their addiction to slavery, starting a civil war, their Jim Crow and KKK, and their treason and criminal activity. I am sick of of these swine and celebrate their every death or criminal conviction .
Oh boy the clowns are Back in session hold onto your wallets, the pick pockets are back. I called my Senators not that I really believe it will do any good but I made the effort anyway.
I like the pic, BM.
Ditto’s Barry. A picture truly says a thousand words.
A former CT Governor was sent to jail for receiving roughly the same dollar amount of freebies, from those that he officially oversaw, as Senator Dodd. I believe that the former Governor’s crime was lying about the gift transactions.
From initial reporting, it sounds like an aggressive prosecutor might have an equal case against Dodd’s impropriety and possible fraud.
Where is the investigation?
I am lucky to be sitting home today thanks to another Air Combat Command Family Day turning the 3 day weekend into a 4 day for the troops that spend too much time away from the families and loved ones. Sitting home it gives me plenty of time to contact my Congress critters to vote against this monstrosity via e-mail and phone today. Thanks for the reminder Michelle. I know Senator Crapo is against this bailout, but still awaiting Senator “Wide Stance’s” reply.
Now if we could find anyone in the DOJ with the stones to follow-up on this questionable arraignment between the crooked Senators and this nefarious predatory lender aided by the stupidity and greed of irresponsible borrowers. They are probably too busy turning a blind eye to the sedition and treason of the NYT to do anything about this one.
It would really impress me to see most incumbents get thrown out of office this election cycle, but the sheeple with their short memories aided and abetted by the propaganda of the liberal MSM will continue to forget the excesses of the ruling class when they go to the polling booths.
Oh My !!! Post #14 That picture is toooooo good. I laughed my head off, then I cried. One thing for sure, Code Pink will love the color scheme.
We are being completely bad hearted here. If it is going to Bank of America that will help all the illegal aliens who have credit cards there. So come on, be nice.
SARCASM OFF
The AUDACITY of these ELITES, never ceases to amaze me!!! “WOUNDED OUTRAGE”??? This is what the AMERICAN PEOPLE should be feeling for their ELECTED OFFICIALS…
If anyone needs any extra data to include in a note to their Senator or Congressperson, try this one. The Democrats squeal about the Oil Industry and bloated salaries of their executives; Mozilo -CEO of Countrywide- and best friend to many democrats, including Senators Dodd and Conrad - made $97M last year in total compensation. Lee Raymond, CEO of Exxon Mobil made $26M in total compensation.
Who does the Dodd/Conrad $300B Bill bail out? The wealthier CEO and his cronies, all the more he can give back to them in quid pro quo or campaign contributions. Who says the Dems don’t understand fiscal responsibility?
Lets not forget we had to do this in the 80’s with the savings and loan debacle…..NEVER AGAIN!!!!
The ‘Carousel Bar’ is one of my favorite stops when walking ‘The Strip’.
Do ya think I could get an autograph if I timed it right?
Would someone come bail me out PLEASE????? Oh wait until I buy that new car thennnnnnnn bail me out!
There is alot more to the Chris Dodd scandal. Dodd has steadfastly refused to release the HUD RESPA statements from his Countrywide refinances. He won’t do so because it would reveal that Dodd, unlike other borrowers, was not required to pay a fee to get the lower interest rate when interest rates fell after Dodd signed for his commitment. Dodd also was not charged the traditional “points” that most borrowers are charged. Dodd misled the people of Ct. when he said that he did not have to release anything to the public because it was all on the local land records at the town clerk’s office. The only thing that is on the local land records is the actual mortgage and that tells us nothing other than Dodd got a mortgage. When Dodd was forced to admit that he knew about the Countrywide VIP program and that he was on the VIP list, Dodd said “My wife Jackie knew about it”. Dodd just threw his own wife under the bus. What a swell guy!