courtesy thing... Courtesy? COURTESY FOR WHAT???
Posted on 06/22/2008 5:41:28 AM PDT by Liz
Sen Chris Dodd now admits that Countrywide Financial gave him VIP status to refinance home mortgage loans at a special preferential rate - but he just "assumed" that it was "a courtesy thing." Sen Kent Conrad (D-ND) says his "conscience is absolutely clear" about the special deal he got - after a personal conversation with CEO, Angelo Mozilo. That's because whenever the senator negotiates a personal mortgage, "I talked with the No. 1 or 2 person" at the company. Just like all other borrowers, right? Well, maybe - if the borrower sat on the Senate Banking Committee (Dodd), which oversees mortgage lenders. Or chaired the Senate Budget Committee and sat on the Finance Committee (Conrad). Dodd, Conrad and Johnson aren't the only "Friends of Angelo"....There's former Health and HHS Secy Donna Shalala and former Asst (possibly future) Secy of State Richard Holbrooke. Plus Republican ex-HUD Secy Alphonso Jackson..... names that have come to light thus far. The Senate Ethics Committee says it's investigating........
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The political elite throws its weight around to get cheap loans---but when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they suddenly morph into "just one of the peons." Pols getting cheap loans is the moral equivalent of the Congressional check-writing scandal.
We need an INVESTIGATION....NOW!!! Dodd and Conrad are the TIP of the ICEBERG of CORRUPTION!!! Dodd needs to step down!
Well, I suppose you'd have to have one for it not to be clear.
It is my view that the really important issue here is not the discounts for the favored few, but the repayment. Discounts for the few could be to form a group to mask or smoke screen the very few or one.
The question has not been asked.....has Dodd paid anything on the loan? The way to pay him off for favorable committee work is to give him a house(s) shrouded in a smokescreen of loan perks for many “friends” of the boss.
Show mw the payment records....the cancelled checks
On Fox the other night they discussed this and apparently Dodd or whomever intimated they didn’t know VIP meant preferential treatment or some such. It’s absolutely laughable. Senators and other gubmint bigwigs know exactly what their position can get them and they never hesitate to take full advantage of the leverage. It is insulting for them to even suggest otherwise and I really wish the rest of America would wake up and stop letting them take us for fools.
These low-lifes should be in prison for using their positions to receive benefits not available to all. But the notion of conflict of interest has been so watered down as to be almost non-existent now. I’m sure it’s been watered down intentionally, so much so that now senators who sit on a committee that oversees and provides regulatory guidance for a particular industry will accept special favors from that industry and pretend that everything is just fine.
There is a huge disparity in the laws related to such things at the federal and various state levels. I know of company and Public Service Commission officials who spent time in prison over meals and a couple of nights hotel room. Simply that a company official paid a couple hundred dollars in expenses for a commissioner, peanuts compared to what our members of Congress routinely accept from all sorts of business interests.
There seems to be no such thing as conflict of interest at the federal level any more. Our representatives and senators have just about made sure of it.
B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l......nice insight, bert.
Sure gives the pols good cover--no wonder their so-called "consciences" are clear---they probably never paid a red cent for the deals.
If these were, in fact, payoffs, it would be VERY easy to document.
Agree with you but this is not going to happen. These "Friends of Angelo" are also "Friends of the Media", which of course will sweep this under the rug for them. Nothing to see here, move on....
The bar is very, very high for Dems, impossibly low for Republicans.
***But he’s [Dodd’s] the prime sponsor of a bailout bill that the Senate is poised to pass - despite President Bush’s veto threat - that would shift the burden of bad loans from lenders like Countrywide to the taxpayers.***
It’s worse than Dodd getting a cheap mortgage, it’s a payoff to Dodd from Countrywide to bail out the bank and make us taxpayers pay the bill for all the other bad loans.
I got my first mortgage with Country Wide. Angelo never called me. It’s another story of the “Washington Elite” telling normal hard working Americans to go to hell.
courtesy thing... Courtesy? COURTESY FOR WHAT???
MSM Yawns at yet another Democrat Influence Peddling Scandal.
You can guarantee if this was Republican Senators, it would be on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC 24/7.
Never called?
(Sob) Jeez, I'm all broke up about it (sniff).
The pols courteously told Angelo if he did not give them favorable loans, he was looking at hard time in the pen.
"You peons will never know how profitable it is to be connected," Mozilo said.
ohhh... i thought it might be for writing favorable legislation or something
Your #15:
LOL!!!!!!!!!!
VOTE them out this election year!
VOTE them out this election year!
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