countrywide

Well, Chris Dodd found someone to buy his story that even though he knew he was getting "enhanced customer service" that he did not violate Senate ethics rules on gifts.

The Senate Ethics Committee, chaired by that exemplar of even-handedness Barbara Boxer, declared the Senator had not violated those rules in a ruling Friday.

The Dodd camp argues this is an "exoneration".  Hardly. 

Exoneration occurs when a person who has been convicted of a crime is later proved to have been innocent of that crime

No, what we have here is an "acquittal" . Much as the Bronco owner of Brentwood managed to be tried by a sympathetic jury who applied the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard, it appears Dodd's fellow senators were unwilling to pass judgment on Dodd and his buddy Kent Conrad.

The basis for the Committee's conclusion that Dodd did not receive an illegal gift appears to be it concluded the evidence supporting the charge was not credible.  We can presume that the committee determined that Robert Feinberg, the Countrywide whistleblower, was not fully truthful. But unlike a public trial, the reason for their conclusion herein is a mystery.  Certaintly many in the press found Feinberg credible.  One is left to surmise why the Senate ethics committee didn't. 

One way to resolve this would be to release the 18,000 pages of evidence presented in defense of Dodd so voters could reach their own conclusion.The Dodd camp has rejected this transparency out of hand.

Perhaps the real reason Dodd and Conrad skated is it appears the Committee defined "improper gift" as applying only to those gratuities offered exclusively to Senators. The "safety in numbers" defense applied. Since the "Friends of Angelo" program greased cabinet members, bureaucrats, local officials and bankers far and wide, the Committee could say with a somewhat straight face "the same terms were offered to many other borrowers".  Wonderful. If you comp everyone no one gets in trouble.

Many observers have noted that the federal investigation into Countrywide is far from over and the DOJ may be less apt to cut politicians slack than an ethics committee.  The voters may not the Ethics Committee pointedly called out Dodd for poor judgment in creating an appearance of impropriety--noting he ignored "red flags".. Or maybe we can go back to exactly how Dodd bought that Irish cottage.

Then again, perhaps we might solve the mystery of how the Senate Banking Committee was asleep at the switch when the global financial markets collapsed in a heap in 2008. Now that he has the ethics investigation behind him, I'm sure Senator Dodd will work very hard to find the "real killers " of  our economy.     

Chris Dodd's effort to commandeer the health care system so as to provide a trillion dollar memorial to his BFF Teddy Kennedy hit a little speed bump this afternoon.

Remember Robert Feinberg, Angelo Mozilo's go to guy at Countrywide Mortgage about greasing VIP's

Well, his testimony before the Senate Ethics Committee and a House Committee  got leaked to the AP. And it's not pretty.

Countrywide VIPs, Feinberg told the committees, received discounts on rates, fees and points. Dodd received a break when Countrywide counted both his Connecticut and Washington homes as primary owner-occupied residences -- a fiction, according to Feinberg. Conrad received a type of commercial loan that he was told Countrywide didn't offer.

Hmm, Dodd got the owner-occupied mortgage rates on BOTH the Connecticut house and the DC house even though obviously only one could be a "principal residence".  And who said they didn;t get a "sweetheart deal"? 

Maybe that was the "enhanced customer service" Dodd talks about.  And maybe it's time Dodd post the actual loan documents and loan applications on the Internet. But then again, if both applications said they were for a "principal residence" they the good Senator better hope he didn't mail or fax them.

Dodd spent a million dollars to firm up his party base support and lose ground in the ballot tests in recent weeks. And that was with Countrywide and the Irish Cottage being pretty much in remission.  Now , once again "it's all further proof that Sen. Dodd's candidacy remains toxic."

I haven't seen Rob Simmons's reaction , but Sam Caligiuri was all over this

  Connecticut cannot afford to once again endure the scandals of a leader who has been corrupted by the trappings of power.  If this testimony is true, Senator Dodd's resignation is in order, because he not only did wrong, he covered it up.   

The Republican State Chairman is all over thist too, pointing out this little gem.

Asked by a House investigator if Conrad, the North Dakota senator, "was aware that he was getting preferential treatment?" Feinberg answered: "Yes, he was aware." Referring to Dodd, the investigator asked: "And do you know if during the course of your communications" with the senator or his wife "that you ever had an opportunity to share with them if they were getting special VIP treatment?" "Yes, yes," Feinberg replied.

 Grab the popcorn! One blogger tonight suggested "Nutmeg State Democrats are likely to get even more nervous about Mr. Dodd’s chances in November 2010"

The CT Republicans have posted a fun, interactive one stop location for the various Chris Dodd scandals

It's called "Calling Chris Dodd"

Pick up the phone and enjoy!

NEW YORK, April 27, 2009 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) on Monday discarded the Countrywide brand in its mortgage operations, a name now sullied by risky home loans, an FBI investigation, and the high pay of its former chief executive.

next....

HARTFORD, November 3, 2010 (Reuters) Connecticut on Tuesday discarded the Dodd name from its U.S. Senate operations, a name sullied by sweetheart mortgages, associations with rogue financiers, an ethics committee investigation and inattentiveness to the worst financial crisis in a generation.

We've read all about how much it helped to be a "Friend of Angelo" when one borrowed money from Countrywide Mortgage.

Even Chris Dodd, who swears he didn't get a sweetheart deal on his interest rates, admits he got "enhanced customer service". (We still haven;t seen what special notes were scraled on his loan documents, have we?)

Well, that's NOT what Dodd's own constituents get when they borrowed from Countrywide and fell behind on their payments. 

The Hitchcocks of Farmington, CT are living a horror movie befitting ole Alfred Hitchcok himself.

See, they bought a house from Mr. Hitchcok's siblings which has been in the family for generations. Then Mr. Hitchcock got sick, couldn't work, and now they can;t make the payments. No McMansion bought with a fake appraisal or bogus application. Just the ordinary hard luck story the mortgage business has dealt with since its inception.

So, Countrywide should've let them sell the house and accepted the proceeds and called the mortgage even.  Didn;t happen.

    Lenders and mortgage servicers say they have added staff to deal with short sales, but they are flooded with requests they must review, painstakingly. Susan Hitchcock said she learned her offer was one of 150 that sat on a desk at Countrywide for two months before it was looked at. 

Guess the Hitchcocks got  "unenchanced customer service".

So Countrywide instead of accepting an offer for $185,000 decided to spend thousands in legal fees to foreclose on the Hitchcocks...and the bid came in at $183,850.  Brilliant economic decision, guys

Having Chris Dodd as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee didn;t do the Hitchcocks any good, now did it?

What's worse from a policy standpoint is while we see "remedies" to the foreclosure problem which are ineffective like Dodd's 2008 initiatives, or have horrendoes moral hazard consequences like mortgage cramdowns; the simple, tried and true ways to deal with defaulted loans like short sales aren;t being implemented by banks even when they are TARP recipients.  

Maybe the solution to our economic woes might be simply giving ordinary folks the same "enhanced customer service" Senators get.  

A group of seemingly unrelated stories are actually linked. And once again it is bad news for Senator Chris Dodd (D- Countrywide)

See, he really IS the "Countrywide Senator" since he attracted a grand total of FIVE contributors this year from the state he claims to represent in the Senate.

Five donors. From a state with five congressional districts. There's a groundswell of local support if I ever saw one. Makes the 3,000 at the Hartford Tea Party look large now.

By way of comparison, Dodd had fewer local donors this quarter than UConn woman's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has national titles.  

Dodd did raise a million; but most likely from people who can't vote for him and he may wish he didn;t raise money from.

Remember the auto bailout that Dodd's done such a wonderful job with?

The new Obama "auto czar" is Wall Street financier Stephen Rattner.

Mr. Rattner made the news today as the Wall Street Journal links him to a "pay for play" scandal involving the NY State pension fund. where it is alleged Rattner's firm made improper payments in exchange for receiving state investment funds.  This scandal is related to the demise of the former NY State Comptroller, Democrat Alan Hevesi.

So the man responsible for saving GM and Chrysler and protecting their pension funds played games with the NY State pension fund? Boy, that's encouraging. NOT.

But who is yet another "Friend of Chris Dodd"?

Stephen Rattner.  

Yep, he contributed the legal maximum to Dodd's 2004 re-election race.

====UPDATE====

Rattner's firm is now implicated in ANOTHER "pay to play" pension scam, this involving the New Mexico pension fund and Governor Bill Richardson

Another day, another sleazy Dodd contributor. (Downe, Madoff, Stanford, Cassano....) I ought to do a macro for these posts.

It looks like Dodd has "friends" on Wall Street; back here in CT, well, there's a different reaction.

Dodd's Troubles Open Debate on Congress' Ties With Special Interests

 Dodd has become the poster boy for critics who say the inevitable ties between longtime members of Congress and special interests are undermining efforts to revive the economy.

"He literally thinks he's going to play a critical role from saving us from ourselves," Christopher Healy, the Republican Party chairman in Connecticut, said of the Democratic senator.

"It's like putting the arsonist in charge of the volunteer fire department. He knows where the fire is because he set it. But beyond that, he can't offer much help."........

Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University and a congressional scholar, said the ties between lawmakers and special interest groups have bothered him for a long time.

"No one leaves Congress living at the same level they came in," he told FOXNews.com.

"More than anything else, it's getting insider information, getting special deals that on the face are not illegal. But they're in a privileged position."......

Critics are seizing on that now, saying Dodd should have been paying more attention to red flags in the economy.

"He wasn't asleep at the switch," Baker said. "He wasn't even at the switch."

There's really not much more than I can add. Sleazy, self-centered and incompetent. The trifecta of failure all packaged together in one article. Perhaps this sums up the worst problem with Dodd.

"They're trying to weave things together that have been reported on widely over the years," Dodd said. "They are taking some items that are frankly, old news, routine transactions, and trying to make more out of it."

For Wicca's sake, you've spent a career hanging out with grifters like Ed Downe Jr. and abandoned the helm of the Banking Committee right when the financial tsunami appeared on the horizon, and you don't realize you did anything wrong.  

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

Connecticut's leading pollster, Quinnipiac University, released it's latest poll today. And the temperature reading on CT's senior senator , Chris Dodd, continues to drop into hypothermia conditions

 

 

A total of 42 percent of voters say they "definitely" or "probably" will vote to reelect Sen. Dodd in 2010, while 51 percent say the "probably won't" or "definitely won't" vote for him.

By a 54 - 24 percent margin, Connecticut voters say they are not satisfied with Sen. Dodd's explanation of allegations that he received preferential mortgage treatment and 56 percent of voters say they are less likely to vote for him because of this controversy.

"Sen. Dodd is vulnerable. His approval has sunk to a new low. More voters disapprove than approve of the job he is doing for the first time in 15 years of polling," Schwartz said. "The mortgage controversy has taken a toll on his approval rating. Most voters are not satisfied with Dodd's explanation and say they are less likely to vote for him next year because of it."

 

 If anything, the polls's internals are even more horrific for Senator Dodd than the widely reported toplines

11% of CT voters will "defintively" vote to re-elect Dodd; while  32% of CT voters will "definitely" vote against Dodd.

So the "intensity" in this race is starting off 3 to 1 against the incumbent; who will need 67% of those voters who aren't committed to firing him in order to hold office.

On the question of trust, unaffiliated voters  break 39%- to 45% against Dodd being "honest and trustworthy"  By a 19% to 59% measure they aren;t satisfied with Dodd' explanation of how he got "VIP" treatment from Countrywide Mortgage.

Perhaps most ominously for Dodd, he is losing the re-elect question in CT's three rural eastern counties . where he once represented in Congress and where his possible opponent (Fmr. Congressman Rob Simmons) is from.  Even people living near Dodd Stadium are sick of Chris Dodd.

Now how bad are these numbers? Well, I'm thinking Chris Dodd is in Rick Santorum sorta trouble; especially since in July 2005 Quinnipiac had Santorum with positive job approval. a and a plurality edge on the re-elect question. 

As we know, Santorum went down by something like 18 points in a purple state. CT is bluer than PA is red, and the CT GOP is unlikely to find as strong a votegetter as Casey; but I challenge Nate Silver to explain why Chris Dodd isn't high on 538.com's list of vulnerable 2010 senate seats. 

The problem for Dodd is he's already done his damage control on Countrywide and suffered more damage.  Sure he promises to fight back, but let's "fisk" this statement, why don;t we. 

 When the time comes, Sen. Dodd will be ready with a vigorous, well-funded (by special interests) re-election campaign," said Dodd's spokesman, Bryan DeAngelis. "Now is the time for leadership and that is why Sen. Dodd is focused on helping Connecticut families get out of this economic crisis and hardship."

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hcu-qpoll-0210,0,4411573.story

The Hartford Business Journal's Dean Pagani has suggested Democratic senior statesmen will intercede to get Dodd to go quietly into the night off to his Connemara cottage, so they can run the more popular Attorney General Dick Blumenthal or perhaps chomping at the bit Congressman Chris Murphy. But I think someone who thinks his family owns this senate seat is going to go down swinging irregardless of whether he hurts his party; he did waste over a year of his life on a risable race for President.   

So, folks, if you thought 2006 was a fun senate election in CT, well we have an encore!!!...and one that a registered Republican can win!

I think Dodd is going to go down along with the economic disaster he helped create. Shouldn;t mess with karma, I say 

I've posted before on the surreal Chris Dodd "now you see 'em;  now you don;t" "disclosure" of his Counrtywide mortgage documents.

The day after, the Wall Street Journal agreed with yours truly that this was a gambit of Nixonian deception. calling it a "modified, limited mortgage hangout"

Well, rather than make this an hourly ticker of reaction to this bizarre event, I've allowed a few days to let the dust settle, and I must say I'm feeling a lot more aligned with conventional wisdom on this than one I am accustomed to feeling; Take this morning's Hartford Courant  editorial

  Sen. Dodd Disappoints

Countrywide Fiasco • Releases documents, but fails to admit his error in judgment

Seven months after a magazine article disclosed that Sen. Christopher Dodd was among several high-profile federal officials who got loans on favorable terms from now-failed mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp., he has sought to set the record straight. It was a disappointing performance.On Monday, Connecticut's senior senator and his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, held a press conference at which they released documents related to the refinancing of the couple's Washington and East Haddam homes. They also made a detailed defense against claims they got special treatment.The couple announced that they're going to refinance both homes, this time through a third party, "to try and insulate ourselves against an accusation that we're trying to get some special deal." Mr. Dodd also apologized to the people of Connecticut for not releasing the documents sooner.Yet he doesn't admit that accepting the loans was an error in judgment. Instead, he seems to be apologizing for political miscalculations. 

The Courant points out the documents Dodd refuses to share with the CT public "were scrawled with the letters "FOA," a reference to Friends of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's chief executive at the time"

Senator Dodd admits he knew he was receiving "enhanced customer service" from Countrywide, yet seems painfully obtuse to the glaring problem that it's rather clear the only reason such "enhanced customer service" was offered to him was by virtue of his senior position on the Senate Banking Committee. 

If the idea was an hour of invitation only viewing by the press was going to result in Senator Dodd recovering his public standing in CT; well, it failed.  See also this  , this and this

Perhaps Dodd ought to have looked at a similar effort to address a crisis a politician faced concering his personal finances. In 1952, a young U.S. Senator faced charges he had personally profited from holding public office. And Richard Nixon didn't explain himself before some hastily assembled closed star chamber of the local California media. He put the "Checkers speech" on national television.      

He followed with a complete financial history of his personal assets, finances, and debts, including his mortgages, life insurance, and loans, all of which had the effect of painting him as living a rather austere lifestyle. He denied that his wife Pat had a mink coat; instead, she wore a "respectable Republican cloth coat."

I suspect Senator Dodd couldn;t do this, since even in an affluent state like CT very few of his constituents own three homes, including a vacation retreat in Ireland.     Remarkable how someone who has never worked in the private sector can accumulate vast wealth, isn't it. 

Still,had Dodd held a timely, public open exposition of his personal finances, however, funky the specifics might be; he'd have at least earned some points for being willing to man up and take his lumps. But the game of charades he's playing makes him look like yet another dissembling politician trying to scam the voters.

Chris Dodd really ought to look at the career of Richard Nixon. The Checkers Speech was a runaway success.    The "modified limited hangout" was an unmitigated political disaster. But this is the path Senator Dodd has taken. Which is deeply ironic for a politician first elected as a "Watergate baby" in 1974;  the circle has made a full cycle; has it not?

About the time Chris Dodd was starting his career in Washington this guy was finishing his up in Southeast Asia. Yep, the cycle may have come full circle.

Remember a couple of weeks back when I suggested Chris Dodd (D-Countrywide) was about to do a document dump about his VIP Mortgages?

well, the whitewash was held today.

And the timely was quite interesting. First we find Dodd gets lambasted the day before by the Hartford Courant.

and a hastily scheduled press avail is set up right between two massive CT news stories.

a) the am report that AG Dick Blumenthal is not running for Governor.

b) a 6pm statewide TV address by Governor Rell on the budget crisis.

Hmm, sounds like trying to "flood the zone"; perhaps Kurt Warner was calling this play. Seems like the Senator was hoping this play would "break coverage"

Well, it did get covered.

HARTFORD -"'Facing a record-low approval rating and partisan claims of sweetheart mortgage deals in 2003, a contrite U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd on Monday finally let reporters review hundreds of pages of loan documents

Dodd also released a 24-page review of the loans from a Chicago-based consultant firm that he commissioned through his attorneys. Dodd could not say how much it cost.

The report, created by Cross Check Compliance LLC of Chicago, concluded that Dodd's refinancing was "consistent with those that any borrower who possessed similar credit, income, asset and equity positions would have received during the highly active refinance market that existed during the first half of 2003." The consultants said "Fees and charges paid by the borrowers were higher than the national average."

Reporters poured through hundreds of pages of mortgage documents for up to two hours and Dodd staffers were prepared to stay as long as they wanted to continue reviewing them. Many of the pages Dodd said he didn't see until after the June and July, 2003 loan agreements were finalized.

Reporters were prohibited from leaving the meeting room with the documents, which included real estate and personal financial information and Countrywide work sheets. At least three of the pages, dated from April, 2003, referred to Countrywide's "VIP" program and two pages called "refinance wrap-up sheets" contained hand-written "VIP FOA" notes with stars, indicating Dodd was classified among the "Friends of Angelo" Mozilo, the mortgage company's chief executive officer.

http://www.connpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11610295

OK, Chris, you let your friends in the press look at the actual documents; but refuse to let the general public see them?

This is reminscent of Richard Nixon volunteering to let a friendly Senator. John Stennis, listen to his tape recording and let him decide what was appropriate to release. 

 Sorry, Chris, in an era when one can post PDF files on the internet and let the public---including mortgage brokers whom you didn't commission---reach their own informed conclusions---this modified limited hangout  ain't gonna work.

The Courant's Jesse Hamilton expresses skepticism on some of Dodd's self-serving claims, noting that much of the preferential treatment involved float downs without penalities.  

Dodd also promised to refinance his mortgages, but as Hamilton points out "the collapsing housing and credit markets have driven lending rates into the ground.".

(FYI: I am presently refinancing a single family residence in CT. I will watch with interest whether Dodd gets a better deal than I did.)

If so, I'll know the Senator is still getting the same "enhanced customer service" from his new lender than he admitted today receiving from Countrywide. Yet, of course, he did "nothing wrong"

I could ask why Chris Dodd is still chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, but in light of Eric Holder, Tom Daschle and Tim Geithner about to hold three of the most important posts in America despite ethical blindness, I can only assume the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan had it right about defining deviancy down 

 Yep, it's Groundhog Day already. Instead of hearing Sonny and Cher, we can wake up to another day of a Democratic political insider trying to whitewash his record.

=====UPDATE======

The Wall Street Journal shares my sense we've been bamboozled by "Tricky Chris"'s nondisclosure disclosure

 "If, as Mr. Dodd claims, he has nothing to hide, then why is he still hiding it?"