The inartful Dodd-ger
Unscrupulous borrower Sen. Chris Dodd still won’t come clean on his special home loan deal. And folks in Connecticut aren’t letting him off the hook.
Kevin Rennie turns up the heat on The Dodd-ger in the Hartford Courant:
I took the Dodd challenge, and the senator won’t like the result. Several days after news broke last month that Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and his wife received significantly reduced interest rates on more than $800,000 in mortgages from Countrywide Financial, Dodd taunted reporters to look at the rates. He claimed he got a deal available to any other borrower. He was wrong.
Dodd won’t provide any information to support his claim. He still has not. He denies knowing he was among the privileged on Countrywide founder Angelo Mozilo’s exclusive “Friends of Angelo” list. Eventually, Dodd admitted he knew he received VIP treatment from Countrywide on mortgages on his homes in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut.
Though he said he’d release documents associated with the transactions to the public “at some point,” Dodd continues to refuse to let his constituents see the secret details of two deals that will save him more than $70,000 over the life of the loans.
Some embarrassing devils must live in the details of the records Dodd refuses to release. Dodd got great deals from Countrywide, and checking the rates confirms it. The senior senator didn’t issue an easy challenge. The 2003 loan on his D.C. property, purchased a few years before from his old friend, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, was for $506,000. That’s a “jumbo,” more than the maximum of a conventional loan, and records on those interest rates aren’t widely available.
Curiously, Sen. Dodd has not produced a survey of interest rates available at the time he obtained his mortgages. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee could get the information if he thought it would confirm his loud claim that it’s outrageous to think he got special treatment from Countrywide.
Meanwhile, Beltway buzz continues to surround the possibility of Dodd as Obama’s VP pick.
Again, some Connecticut folks aren’t buying it. And that includes a prominent Democrat in CT who has one word for Dodd as VP: “Stupid.”
Many Connecticut Democrats rallied around U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd in his race for the presidency, and now many of the top officeholders - such as Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz - support the idea of Dodd serving as the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
But not Edith Prague.
The outspoken Democratic state senator from Columbia supported U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, and she thinks that Clinton would be the best choice for the No. 2 spot under Obama.
“I think Obama would be stupid at this point to put [Dodd] on the ticket,” Prague said. “This mortgage deal. Give me a break.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Taking a Closer Look at Dodd’s Mortgage (Updated July 21) | Conservative247
- My obligatory Stop the Bailout and Cuff Dodd post. « Illiberal Virtuosity
- Michelle Malkin » Kill the bailout: Dodd makes me gag
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Subprime crisis
Babalu Blog
» "October Surprise"
Stop The ACLU
» Why Can’t Obama Produce a Birth Certificate?Gateway Pundit
» Talk About Angry Thugs... Philly Leftists Boo Sarah Palin & Her 6 Year-Old Little Girl!Riehl World View
» Oh, Shut Up!Riehl World View
» Why Won't Obama Release Any Documents?Patterico
» Obama Supporters are an E-clectic BunchStop The ACLU
» Western Journalists Redeploy From IraqPower Line
» The Undeniable Bill AyersRedstate
» So, It's A New Deal You Want, Eh?
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.
There you go, that’s better.
TTBO throw the bums out.
Come on Americans, we do need a change. Lets make our displeasure known at all levels. Let’s get ourselves a clean slate.
Draining the swamp, democrat style.
Pitting hope against hope on that one!
Astonishing! And as Edith Prague said, “give me a break!”
Michelle,
Still relevant are my questions from my June 17 article Taking a Closer Look at Dodd’s Mortgage.
I did reference the going rates in 2003 and assumed that he hit the absolute low-point for rates in June 2003.
Portfolio.com indicates that the rates were pegged at 4.875 percent and was dropped to 4.25 and 4.5 percent for the properties.
Rennie and I are still wondering what the going rates were for those types of loans for the public.
This results in the quoted savings of about $70k over the life of the loans - BUT the first five years were fixed.
Now that the five years are up, what is Dodd’s new deal? Have his mortgages gone adjustable? Has he been “taken advantage of” but “unscrupulous” lenders?
Left wing Rosa DeLauro, D, Ct, 3rd, worked for Dodd during his Kennedy buddy womanizing drinking days and called him a sexist when she quit.
Dodd has always been a slimy reprobate.
Now, if only his fellow Dems could apply the same secrecy to actual secrets of vital national interest…
Shut up, Hefty. Dream on.
Dodd continues to refuse to let his constituents see the secret details
Maybe someone should tip off the New York Times about this story, but somehow convince them that this is really about US national security and they can score some awesome anti-Bush points because this is bad for republicans.
Maybe the people of CT will wake up and get this bum out of office. Just how much illegal stuff can the Dems pull off and not be held accountable?
Did you hear about the chief foreign policy expert on McCain’s campaign? He used to work for Abramoff. Dirty, dirty.
If Dodd was a conservative it would be a national scandal and he’d be run out of office by the liberals.
The sweetheart mortgage is only the beginning of the corruption. In fact, the whole bailout bill is nothing more than a sophisticated quid pro quo to Bank of American and Countrywide. The worst part is that all of it is now public record and no one cares. This deal is among the biggest pieces of corruption ever and no one is even investigating. To say that this is merely about a sweetheart loan misses the point entirely. Here is the full and updated summary of how we got to this place of having this corrupt bill nearly become law.
Jon,
You are as predictable as always. Why not stay on topic? What is your opinion of Sen. Dodd (without references to anyone else)?
I’m from Ct. Ct is a deep blue state. Dodd does not fear being voted out of office. That’s why he’s so impudent.
Put these in your score sheet:
Weldon
Alaska (cesspool of Republican “making”)
Gov. Mike Easley (North Carolina Republican)
I don’t excuse Democratic wrongdoing just because Republicans do it more. But you can’t close your eyes and pretend Republicans do it less.
Dodd=tremulous blow hard.
Get OFF his back people… He got the same rate that was available to ANYONE WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE CEO OF THE MORTGAGE COMPANY… Got that??? No SPECIAL CONSIDERATION!!!
…and yet nearly every post you make is about how a Republican is worse in your opinion. You are the one closing your eyes and deflecting here.
I’ll ask again: How about your thoughts on Sen. Dodd, specifically?
Lgm is a tool. The day he stays on topic and actually answers a question on topic will be the day hell freezes over.
Typical swoop and poop from our resident troll.
Well, LGM, as Bill O’Reilly likes to say, is excusing bad behavior by pointing to other behavior that is purported to be even worse. That, frankly, is beside the point.
Right now, we are on the brink of having a corrupt $300 BILLION BILL pass through Congress and become law. We are on the brink of having two corrupt banks, and one corrupt politician pull off a sophisticated quid pro quo that will have the tax payers foot the bill for a risky merger that will become a financial boon. That should be the issue we all focus on not whether or not there is other corruption. There is but this is here and now.
Now now lgm you are telling things that are not true. When Republicans got caught with their fingers in the cookie jar you DID NOT see the Republican Leadership ignore the story–
But this Democratic leadership sees no evil, hears no evil but does plenty of evil.
But that IS lgm, out in left field and way off base. So don’t waffle, answer salt’s question:
The problem is not so much the Dem leadership but the media. This should be front page news. Here is a Senator being bought off by two corrupt banks and creating a bill that makes their merger a financial boon. That is what this mortgage bailout is. It is a way for Bank of America to remove billions of bad loans from their own books and move them to the books of the government, and thus the tax payers. No one seems to care, and the media is leading the non caring.
You’re kidding right? Didn’t Dodd even say that he did not know the CEO?
The point here is that he was treated like a VIP simply because the CEO of Countrywide knew that Dodd was a senator and had a strong position on the Banking Committee.
Hence, will you join me in supporting term limits to get rid of professional politicians?
The problem with the democrats is that they have no consciences. They literally have no sense that they can do wrong. In their minds they are always sinless. I’m sure that is why everything is George Bush’s fault. Who else could it be?
No he doesn’t. Half his post are about how Michelle is better or Barry is better looking.
I wonder if Bank Of America will seat any of the prior Country Wide board members?
lgm is performing the intellectual equivalent of putting his fingers in his ears and saying la-la-la. Let him. It’s his best argument.
I don’t get it Michelle. Kevin to says
but it contains no facts. Don’t get me wrong, I think Dodd is a slimeball, but we do ourselves not favors stating things for which we have no data. Please don’t let us start beig like the Dems!!!!!
The sooner everyone on this thread ignores this idiot (lgm)The sooner we all become HAPPY.. Don’t ever reply to this idiot and he will go away…EVER..IMO…
Doug,
I understand where you are coming from, but there was some information originally at Politico.com, The Day and my site.
I’ve got some facts for you.
mchristian said (#27):
lgm provided 3 links to three instances of Republican corruption before putting his fingers in his ears. You covered your eyes before you clicked on them?
twiggman said (#29):
What makes you happy? Being able to hate liberals without truth raining on you?
Nope, hell hasn’t frozen over yet. Still not on topic, still dodging questions on topic.
You are hardly posting the truth, LGM. That’s for sure. If you don’t like it here, you can always leave. All you seem to do is read glimpses of what Mrs. Malkin or see-dubya post, use a search engine, and try and find a republican doing the same thing or whine about the “unfair” coverage on here.
When are you going to learn, LGM, that this is a conservative blog.
And what does that have to do with this post?????
Right on, Red Dog #24! The dems seem to think that they are entitled to all sorts of things. They have no integrity and whine when caught doing illegal and unethical things. They have spent time lining their pockets while draining ours. At least republicans get rid of their crooks when caught. The next step is to not make these unethical, immoral or illegal choices.
LMG: Here is the difference -
Republicans resign.
Democrats get Re-elected….
Thank you Nancy for “Cleaning” things up in Congress!! (What a joke!)
By the way… Am I the only one here who thinks that Schumer should be ousted and possibly arrested?
ahraley #36…No your not the only one..But you and I both know it will NEVER happen…
#36, that is sooooooo true. It is time to:
Clean them out
Clean them out
Clean them out
Vote Vote Vote
Sure seems like it’s a conflict of interest when our congress is getting deals on home loans and they want to bail these companies out. We’ve done ourselves a great disservice by not making sure their salary stayed low so they could actually live like the common American and keep some perspective.
I say they also need to buy there own cars and gas, they earn $169,000. how come we need to get them cars and gas…
As that great politician Groucho Marx said who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes. Or, am I perhaps mistake and the same was asked by “Senator” Chris Dodd.
You provided 3 links to the same liberal blog, but you made not one comment about Sen. Dodd (the topic of this blog post). I will go read those after you have been kind enough to leave your own, non-talking points related thoughts on one Sen. Dodd. How ’bout it? Is he a shining beacon of what we should expect from a liberal ideal?
As twiggman also mentioned, you are not alone. I would add on to this that Sen. Schumer should have his assets seized to help defray the losses to the investors caused by his starting the run on IndyMac.
Salt #43 Good point..I agree…
lgm,
You’re links all appear to go to the same page. At least for me they did.
There is one thing I found interesting: Weldon is a former rep.
What about the dem cought with $90k in his freezer? I know it’s been beeten to death here, but in all fairness we must mention it in light of your straying from the topic of Dodd. Isn’t that guy still a rep? After being cought green-handed?
lgm losing points for links to liberal talking points for 3 issues about Republican office holders and their issues have nothing to do with favorable treatment for mortgages, AND nothing to do with favorable treatment of being the chair of a committee regulating the industry that issues mortgages. lgm is an ether sucking mind numbed liberal robot.
LGM, sorry to bust your bubble BUT Mike Easley is a Democrat, not a Republican.
Ha.
Since we are off-topic, at least we have lgm on record that a democratic governor is guilty of wrongdoing without a qualification of someone else being worse.
Sen. Dodd has nothing to worry. He’ll weather it, being in a blue state. If ever there is an investigation, it will be stalled, just like Rep. Jefferson (who?…who?). In case some don’t remember, that’s the “freezer” congressman. The democrats protect their own, the republicans scramble to look clean. Neither party I care for.
Chris Dodd lied to the people of Connecticut when he said that all of his documents related to the refinances were public. Only the mortgages themselves are on the land records and they tell us nothing more than how much be borrowed. He will not release his HUD RESPA statements, which tell us what his actual closing costs were. He will release anything else either.
Samantha Power? Oh wait, she was the one that said to foreign powers that everything Obama said was a lie, right?
On July 21st, 2008 at 11:01 am, lgm said:
Put these in your score sheet:
Weldon
Alaska (cesspool of Republican “making”)
Do you really want a list of the corruptocrats in the current Democrat party? I don’t think I have enough room! From Reid’s sleazy land deals to Jefferson’s bribes on ice? Easely is a Dem, isn’t he?
I think the problem is not that Republicans don’t do it, but that Democrats do it ever so much more and better, and rarely get prosecuted or thrown out of the party.
True or false: if Dodd was a Republican, would there be a Democrat led investigation and would he be forced to step down from his position of power? (theme from Jeopardy here).
Dodd is a fraud, and a slice of the old ham (his father was also corrupt and censured by the senate for misusing campaign funds).
Getting elected is better than hitting the lottery. And I love the pension plan too.
He gives “stupid” a bad name.