Posted on 06/22/2008 6:25:49 AM PDT by Libloather
Watchdog group blasts Senate rule that exempted Dodd mortgages from disclosure
By Don Michak
Journal Inquirer
Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008 2:46 PM EDT
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd didn’t have to disclose the two controversial mortgages he obtained in 2003 through a “VIP” program at Countrywide Financial Corp. because of a loophole in the Senate’s ethics rules, a Washington-based campaign finance watchdog group charged Wednesday.
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics also reported that the five-term Democrat collected more than a tenth of the subprime lender’s campaign contributions this year — $15,000 — and that he had collected a total of $25,000 from Countrywide’s political action committee during his career.
It said that was more than any other senator got from Countrywide and suggested that the campaign contributions were “investments.”
The Journal Inquirer reported Wednesday that Dodd, now chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the mortgage industry, didn’t describe either of the Countrywide loans that totaled nearly $800,000 in any of the six financial disclosure forms he later filed as a senator and 2008 presidential candidate.
A spokesman for the senator said Wednesday that was because Dodd wasn’t required to list the mortgages since the Senate’s disclosure rules exempt loans obtained in connection with a member’s primary or secondary residences.
The aide added that the rules do require disclosure of loans made in connection with rental properties and that Dodd had consistently reported the details of a mortgage he obtained for a two-bedroom cottage he owns in Ireland.
Nonetheless, a Center for Responsive Politics spokesman said Wednesday that Dodd had benefited from “an interesting loophole that keeps the public from knowing how politicians finance what’s often their largest investment: their own home.”
Meanwhile, the group on its Web site rued that under this “surprising loophole,” most members of Congress have to disclose property, or mortgages on that property, only if it produces income.
“So, unless they rent out a room, their basement, or a guesthouse out back, a congressman’s primary residence is generally not listed,” it said.
Dodd on Tuesday adamantly denied knowing that he had received special treatment when he used Countrywide to refinance both his Washington townhouse and his home in East Haddam.
He was responding to criticism sparked by a report on the Web Site of Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, which reported last week that the preferential loans were made under Countrywide’s “Friends of Angelo” program — a reference to the lender’s chief executive, Angelo Mozilo.
Portfolio also reported that Countrywide had waived fractions of points on the loans, saving Dodd about $2,700, and that their interest rates had been reduced from an initial quote of 4.87 percent, potentially saving the senator about $58,000 over their term.
The Senate Ethics Committee this week began a preliminary investigation of the mortgages Dodd and others received from Countrywide, which was a major player in the subprime mortgage business whose collapse led to a national housing crisis.
Dodd insisted Tuesday that the interest rates he had received from Countrywide were within the range of those being offered by other companies at the time and that he never talked to higher-ups at the company and didn’t know Mozilo.
He also said he would welcome a ethics panel probe of the matter, saying he had “no problem whatsoever.”
This idiot RUNS the Banking Committee? This is what happens when the perps write the rules/loopholes.
It is the electors that are the idiots. Dodd is simply a liar who uses the system to gore the ox.
Sure ...
Sorry ... excuse me for a spell ... I forgot.
THEY ARE DEMOCRAPS!! Gotz ta goez a gits my medications, Vern.
That's an oxymoron if there ever was one!
Ok which is it Senator Dodd, are you a bought and paid for puppet for Countrywide or are you, as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, so incompetent that you didn’t know what the prevailing mortgage rates were when you signed your mortgage?
In either case you should resign, but of course you won’t.
DODD and CONRAD need Investigation from the FBI, not just the Senate “ethics” committee.
Club members (DC hacks) are above the law.
Vote him out.
The FBI should check their freezers. I hear that’s a good place to hide your bri...I mean your “Friends of Angelo” cash.
These People in the Senate and House are so crooked that when they die, they will have to screw them into the ground!.. LOOP HOLE!
I think that is an OXYMORON!
Yeah! fix it for themselves and still they get caught!....
'Cuz the pols surely won't do diddly.
A) They don't know who else is dirty.
B) The ethics truce is still in force. Don't out ours and we won't out yours.
Capitol Hill is a cesspool.
If the FBI formed a taskforce to go after dirty federal and state pols, they'd be doing this nation a great service.
Being a rat means never having to say you are sorry. You are NEVER guilty of anything. If you can’rt lie your way out of something the ratmedia will simply stop reporting on it.
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