Dodd adds spice to his political comeback trail

My Senator is going to take some time off from manhandling the financial services sector and auto industry to do some campaigning among the common folks who were not blessed to be fathered by a U.S. Senator.

He will be in the small town of Somers today attending a Chili Cook-off 

You know, not among lobbyists and financiers--just "average people" whom you can't explain the working of finance to. Since only 21% of the voters approve of how you are managing the Banking Commitee, looks like you've given up on that, eh? But you'll still eat their chili. How noble.

Any release of pungent hot air from the Senator on tomorrow's televised gabfests will be purely coincidental, I'm sure.

Of course, we've been told the Senator has retooled his staff to prepare for a real re-election campaign, not the clueless dolts who could only find enough local donors to fit in a Honda Fit.

The Politico reports Dodd's new major domo will be Edward Silverman . Here's the read

Edward Silverman will become chief of staff for the Senate Banking Committee, according to several lobbyists close to the committee. Silverman currently heads public policy for Connecticut-­based firm RBS Securities and serves as treasurer of Dodd’s leadership political action committee. .....Silverman brings the type of experience that could prevent such media firestorms from igniting in the future, said lobbyists. He spent nine years working for Dodd in the 1980s, serving as banking committee counsel, legislative director and finally chief of staff.In 1989, he joined RBS, where he currently works as managing director and head of public policy.

Hmm, who exactly is RBS Securities?

RBS Securities (formerly RBS Greenwich Capital) is the Royal Bank of Scotland Group's U.S. investment bank/broker-dealer based in Greenwich, Connecticut that specializes in fixed income arbitrage and other fixed income strategies......In 2007, RBS was named Currency Derivatives House of the year by RISK Magazine

Hmm, Royal Bank of Scotland---the AIG of the UK!

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (LSE: RBS) is a majority part-nationalised British banking and insurance holding company in which HM Treasury holds a 74% controlling shareholding, through the UK Financial Investments Limited. The group is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the world's largest company by assets.

And what happened to RBS? Well their CEO, Fred Goodwin was fired by the Gordon Brown government who had to de facto nationalize the firm. Why? Because the bank had too much deriviative exposure!

However the business (now RBS Greenwich Capital) started making money, and under pressure of comparison with rapidly-growing competitors such as Barclays Capital, saw major expansion in 2005-7, not least in private equity loans and in the sub-prime mortgage market.[10] It became one of the top three underwriters of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).[21] This increased exposure to the eventual "credit crunch" contributed to RBS's financial problems

Yep, Dodd thinks a guy tied in to the AIG of the UK is going to plot a path out of the mess he made with AIG, Fannie Mae and every other financial firm he's gotten within a kilometer of over the past two years.

Dodd may be eating chili today, but he's still selling the same crap sandwich.