Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and master spinster, states this week that he’s going to now (ONLY NOW) have his mortgages refinanced and managed by a third party. Please give Mr. Dodd the “Captain Obvious” sash because he’s clearly earned it.

This after years of his participation in the Countrywide “Friends of Angelo” program where Dodd received an astonishing low mortgage rates of 4.5% for a 10 year loan and 4.25% for a 5 year loan. You read that right, folks - 4.5% and 4.25% with ZERO points down. Not a student loan, but home mortgages. I mean it muuuuuuuuust have just a “coincidence” that the man who was serving on the Banking Committee didn’t know at the time what the average rates were, even though he’s in a position to have his finger on the pulse of what supports the entire banking industry. Nah, that was just a simple oversight. Also, ignore the fact that daily newspapers and broadcast news report on interest and mortgage rates nearly every day.  He clearly couldn’t help missing that.   The average American who reads their newspaper on a daily basis could know if they were getting a sweetheart deal on their home loan, but not Dodd – it’s not his fault! Poor guy, let me rub my thumb and index finger together to play the world’s smallest violin.

Anyboohoo, Dodd is now announcing he is releasing his recordseven though they won’t be made public and only a select group of reports can view a partial portion of the overall records. After nearly a year of promising to do so he presents this as if a). he’s doing it as a grand voluntary gesture and b). this has not been pressured on him to do so all these months. I think Dodd knows exactly what he’s doing. Do not be fooled – this man knew exactly what rate he was getting; that is was significantly lower than what he would qualify on his own w/o the Angelo VIP treatment; and that everyone knows he got his hand caught in the cookie jar. But Dodd continually is playing the deer-in-the-headlights look. I think someone is advising him, badly, that if you play dumb long enough either enough people will buy it or they’ll just grow tired and forget about it.

But nobody truly forgets. Not in this day of Google and YouTube. People will remember Dodd for the sneak that he is. Dodd should resign from the Banking Committee and admit fault – that would go a lot further in a court of public opinion than his current course of action. I personally think he should resign as a Senator and be put on trial as Ted Stevens was but that probably won’t happen since he’s got friends in high (and low) places.  Ed Morrissey wrote a column in the New York Post about Dodd’s record evasion. It’s a great article, so check it out.

The influence-peddling took place when Dodd got the special deal from Countrywide – and the shenanigans that Dodd & Co. allowed Countrywide and other irresponsible subprime lenders to engage in have already burned down the US economy.

Dodd promised last summer that he’d release all of his mortgage documentation to the public. He’s now in his seventh month of failing to deliver. This week, Dodd released some of the papers – but only to a select group of reporters, who weren’t allowed to make copies.

The long wait suggests that Dodd has something to hide. The incomplete “disclosure” and the refinancing, meanwhile, look more like an attempt to bury evidence than a sudden commitment to clean government.

  • Share/Bookmark