The Surreal Chris Dodd: Bill Murray, Mark Twain and Angelo Mozilo in one day!

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?"