With Senator Chris Dodd trailing Rob Simmons, his likely opponent in the 2010 election, by 9 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll, he certainly doesn’t need any more bad news.
It’s too bad for him, then, that the Associated Press has reported on the testimony of Robert Feinberg, who met with the Senate Ethics Committee in secret hearings. Feinberg was the Countrywide official who handled Dodd’s mortgages.
Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation’s largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.
Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn’t know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.
Dodd heads the Banking Committee and is a major player in two big areas: solving the housing foreclosure and financial crises and putting together an overhaul of the U.S. health care system. A five-term senator, he is in a tough fight for re-election in 2010, partly because of the controversy over his mortgages
Both senators were VIP borrowers in the program known as “friends of Angelo.” Angelo Mozilo was chief executive of Countrywide, which played a big part in the foreclosure crisis triggered by defaults on subprime loans.
Countrywide VIPs, Feinberg told the committees, received discounts on rates, fees and points. Dodd [also] received a break when Countrywide counted both his Connecticut and Washington homes as primary owner-occupied residences – a fiction, according to Feinberg.
“He was allowed to do both of those as owner-occupied, which is not allowed. You can only have one owner-occupied property. You can’t live in two properties at the same time,” he said.
Normally, Feinberg said, a second home could require more equity and could have a higher mortgage rate.
At his Feb. 2 news conference, Dodd said he knew he was in a VIP program but insisted he was told by Countrywide, “It was nothing more than enhanced customer service … being able to get a person on the phone instead of an automated operator.”
He insisted he didn’t receive special treatment. However, the assertion was at odds with two Countrywide documents entitled “Loan Policy Analysis” that Dodd allowed reporters to review the same day.
The documents had separate columns: one showing points “actl chrgd” Dodd – zero; and a second column showing “policy” was to charge .250 points on one loan and .375 points on the other.
My only concern is that this is breaking too early. Will Connecticut voters remember this next November? According to Quinnipiac, Dodd’s been trailing Simmons since the Republican announced his intention to run against the five-term senator. But back in March when the news of Dodd’s sweetheart deal was fresh in the minds of the electorate, the incumbent trailed by 16 points in the polls.
Rob Simmons need to hit Dodd over and over with the corruption charge. The Countrywide scandal is not an isolated incident. According to The Hill, as the Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Dodd has…
…branched out his fundraising operation by tapping healthcare-related companies for more than $112,000 in the second quarter of 2009. The sum represents a good chunk of the more than $450,000 Dodd accumulated from PACs in the second quarter.
In addition, fundraising records reviewed by The Hill show that Dodd accepted contributions from 32 lobbyists representing healthcare interests between April 1 and June 30, the weeks preceding Dodd’s markup of legislation overhauling the nation’s healthcare system.
Dodd has made an effort to raise more money from the state of Connecticut after Republicans blasted him for reporting only $4,250 in contributions from five Connecticut residents in the first quarter of 2009.
A review of his fundraising records by The Hill showed that Dodd received contributions from 113 Connecticut residents [in the second quarter], as well as from six Connecticut-based PACs.
The Hill’s tally showed Dodd accepted 111 contributions from individuals and PACs based in D.C.
Put Dodd in charge of the Banking Committee, and he gets sweetheart mortgage deals. Put him in charge of getting Obamacare passed, and healthcare lobbyists fall over each other trying to stuff his pockets with cash.
Just wait and see that is all you can do, and if there is one question about his ethics there are others or will be others. This will be a long fight though……
And when ith Bawney going to pay hith tax penalties?