Free Republic

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey should be a “wake-up call” for Democrats in Congress. Here are 10 likely to be hearing alarm bells. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) No one noticed the election results more than Reid’s advisers, who know he faces a situation similar to that which befell New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Like Corzine, Reid is an unpopular incumbent running in a state whose economy is in the tank. And like Corzine, he’ll have to use his massive war chest to create a negative impression of his opponent...

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd on Countrywide financial loan: "I feel the matter's behind us. We ought to Move on.''

House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room A bitter divide over Countrywide mortgage scandal. By JAMES FREEMAN Democratic staff for the House oversight committee informed their GOP counterparts today that the majority has changed the locks on the committee's hearing room. While Republicans previously enjoyed their own key to the room, they will now have to request access from Democrats. This followed a bitter partisan argument in which Republicans refused to take down a video from their website that contradicted Dem explanations about a closed-door meeting on the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. As we reported last week, the committee...

When he was a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised to make negotiations over healthcare reform an open and transparent process. Now that he's president, the reality is that most of the high-stakes work is being conducted by just three senators behind closed doors. According to the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., gather in Reid's office to hammer out a merger of competing bills before a Senate vote. The only other people allowed in the room are key aides and Obama's representatives on healthcare reform. More than a year...

 Free-market Peter Schiff, who runs Euro Pacific Capital. He is now a potential Republican challenger to Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010.“I'm interrupting my career. It's not like I want my new career in politics. But I'm willing to interrupt it the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis. I don't think that I'm that heroic, and I don't think I'm risking as much as a soldier. But it's the same principle,” Schiff said  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBRmty7fKc 

The latest Quinnipiac Poll is out and it’s more bad news for Sen. Chris Dodd. Despite a public relations blitz that had him returning to Connecticut for what seems like the first time in years, and a statewide email and choreographed “shout out” from President Obama in the Rose Garden, (Rob Simmons) is still leading Dodd 45%-39%.

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

From Ken Vogel's report on the filmmaker's wide-ranging press conference today: Moore also called out Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who supports the public option, but whose role in financial regulation as chairman of the Senate banking committee comes in for criticism in “Capitalism.” Speaking to Public Citizen, Moore said, “we’re going to lose this seat unless we run another Democrat” and said he’d “already received a phone call from a well known Democrat to tell me to back off Sen. Dodd.”

Has it really come to this? Is MSNBC so in the tank for the Democratic Party that it takes far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore to bring up malfeasance by a leading Democrat? Moore appeared on MSNBC's Sept. 29 "Hardball" to promote his new film "Capitalism: A Love Story." With exception of "The Ed Show" fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell noting the Senate Ethics Committee had cleared Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., of wrongdoing and only reprimanded him verbally, over the last couple of months, MSNBC's prime time shows have ignored a deal Dodd got on a mortgage with Countrywide. That is, until...

Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid's imminent demise notwithstanding, perhaps the most scrumptious victory Republicans have a more than good chance of having will be the defeat of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a man whose fifteen minutes are finally up.

I wholeheartedly endorse Peter Schiff for Senate. To understand why, in spite of previous differences between us, please consider the following compelling case, starting with a look at government bailouts, the moral hazards of too big to fail, the current rise in the stock markets, and the "great government advance" of corporate welfare and bailouts at taxpayer expense. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley, discusses government intrusion in Why the Dow is Hitting 10,000 While Everyone Else is Cutting Back. So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of...

Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government. Senior regulators say they are seriously considering a plan to have the nation’s healthy banks lend billions of dollars to rescue the insurance fund that protects bank depositors. That would enable the fund, which is rapidly running out of money because of a wave of bank failures, to continue to rescue the sickest banks. The plan, strongly supported by bankers and their lobbyists, would be a major reversal of fortune. A hallmark of the financial crisis has been the...

The Yankee Republican became an endangered species in Washington, D.C., last fall with the defeat of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the lone survivor of the breed in Connecticut's congressional delegation. Although the state still had a popular Republican governor, the party's national aspirations seemed to have taken flight for more hospitable territory. A scant 10 months later, the GOP in Connecticut is back with what promises to be a raucous and costly fight to unseat a politically vulnerable U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. The party, which hasn't mounted a credible challenge to the Democratic incumbent in years, now has a field...

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

RUSH: Let me go back to the Washington Post, because on Monday the 7th, the Washington Post published an article that very few people talked about and was little noticed, about changes in the mortgage market since Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were taken over a year ago. According to the Washington Post -- this is a quote -- "Only one lender of consequence remains [in the mortgage market]: the federal government..." The mortgage industry has been nationalized. "[N]early 90 percent of all new home loans are funded or guaranteed by [YOU!] taxpayers... The government has the power to decide...

Senate Smackdown: McMahon Running Against Dodd Chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. says she's seeking the Republican nomination to run against Dodd. AP Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers … this is what your Senator thinks of all of you. And the very fact that he has had to resort to using fowl sexual language to describe his constituents gives you a good indication of the state of his campaign. Chris Dodd won’t improve his chances of re-election with talk like this. In one easy to read statement, Dodd’s campaign manager called hard working constituents Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers. High School!

Whatever faults the Republican Party has had, the basic problem has been that many Republican politicians forgot what they were supposed to stand for once they gained office. The program of the Democratic Party, however, is entirely based on lies and deceptions. Most of the time they are afraid to let voters know what they really stand for. Right now they are trying hard to pass a "public option" disguised as something else so voters won't realize what they are doing. It is against this backdrop that concerned Americans not forget the origins of the housing and financial crisis that...

2010 Preview: The Hottest Races in the Senate for DemocratsHolly Bailey Election Day 2010 is still more than a year away—423 days to be exact. But it’s never too early to begin looking at what will be the hottest races to watch. Over the next two days, your Gagglers will look at a handful of must-watch Senate races, a list that will no doubt evolve over the next year as the battle for Congress begins. **SNIP** California: Is Barbara Boxer seriously in trouble? One of the more outspoken liberal members of the Senate, Boxer seemed like a shoo-in for a...

Perpetual bear Peter Schiff contemplates a move into politics. Peter Schiff is offended. “Nobody has ever contacted me from any of the congressmen to say, ‘Hey, you saw this financial collapse coming, you nailed it exactly,’” he says, adding impatiently, “I pretty much got it exact.” If nobody from Washington wants to call him, Schiff figures, he will call Washington. “I don’t seem to be able to make a difference as a private citizen. No one there seems to care what I say,” he complains. He plans to make them care by challenging Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010. “People say...

Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy stood for sleaze. Bloated and drunken, he used his standing in the Kennedy clan to chase vulnerable women - which brought his dream of reaching the White House to a shameful end. He was the youngest of the four Kennedy brothers, and by far the longest lived. Incredibly, he was in line to inherit his brother John F. Kennedy's legendary presidency, but his chances were dashed following the drowning of the pretty, young campaign assistant Mary Jo Kopechne. Forever known as the Chappaquiddick Incident after the Massachusetts island where it took place, the scandal in 1969...

Link to Article Here:To satisfy everyone's curiosity, we offer the following, compiled from various sources: In 1985, Dodd and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy were out (with dates) for a night on the town at La Brasserie. Much liquor was consumed--that will come as a shock to those of us familiar with Ted Kennedy--and the two Senators were at one point unaccompanied by their dates. The Senators made a "Waitress Sandwich" out of some poor, unsuspecting waitress. If you're not entirely sure what that means, let's just say you wouldn't want to be the waitress. Article clip, from the Hartford Courant:"Dodd...

OAK BLUFFS, Mass., Aug 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd promised on Monday a 'thorough and comprehensive' hearing on the renomination of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke.

GOSH, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the...

As the old Irish toast goes, may your sins be judged by the Senate ethics committee. Actually that's not an Irish toast but it must be the fervent hope of every politician who received a "Friend of Angelo" loan from former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. Late last week the six Senators on the ethics panel dismissed complaints against Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd with a mere admonishment about the appearance of impropriety. The three Republican and three Democratic Senators say they conducted an exhaustive probe and inspected 18,000 pages of documents. They say they found "no substantial credible...

Democratic Party senators, Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were "caught" receiving Sub-Prime "VIP" Loans from lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Despite the fact that the lender has testified that both men knew that they were getting a sweetheart deal, Senator Dodd claims he didn't know he was getting favorable rates. This revelation came from Robert Feinberg, the official who handled their loans in testimony to congress. According to the Washington Post:Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for...

Gosh, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to us mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in...

In the political surprise of the summer, Chris Dodd—cleared in the Countrywide scandal and fresh from cancer surgery—is on the verge of saving his career. An exclusive interview with Lloyd Grove. Ailing Connecticut senator Chris Dodd, who underwent successful prostate surgery Tuesday at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, appears to be on the mend politically as well. In what might be the political surprise of the summer, Dodd is on the verge of saving his career. “I think so—we’re getting them back,” the 65-year-old Dodd told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview the night before he went under...

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd underwent surgery for prostate cancer on Tuesday and was recuperating at a New York hospital. Dr. Peter Scardino of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said the surgery was successful and Dodd was resting comfortably. "It is anticipated that he will be able to return to full activity within a few weeks," Scardino said in a statement released by Dodd's office. Dodd, 65, is expected to remain at the hospital for a few days before returning home to Connecticut. The five-term Democrat announced last month that he had been diagnosed with an early, treatable stage of cancer. He...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may now be the most endangered incumbent Seantor running in the 2010 cycle. In a state where Barack Obama won by 12%, Reid has only 34% support for re-election, and trails a possible GOP challenger by 6%. Connecticut Senator and Countrywide Financial favorite son Chris Dodd, also trails his likely GOP challenger, former Congressman Rob Simmons, by a similar high single digit margin.

The donors who poured millions into Ron Paul's presidential campaign coffers aren't done yet. On Saturday, libertarian financier and commentator Peter Schiff raised more than $200,000 in a 24-hour "money bomb" as he continues to explore a bid for the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Having now collected more than $790,000 in campaign contributions since mid-July, the Ron Paul Republican Schiff is competitive financially with the frontrunners for the GOP nomination. Former Congressman Rob Simmons raised $754,000 through June 30 while former ambassador Tom Foley has taken in $528,000 since mid-June. Schiff's fundraising haul wasn't the...

... Americans in vast numbers are abandoning cable news networks because of stunts like this. Throughout the interview the host badgers and belittles Schiff who is barely able to open his mouth before the host interrupts him again.

Politics: Democrats say Rush Limbaugh is running the Republican Party. Better Rush than George Soros, who is running the Democrats. At least Rush believes in freedom, capitalism and letting you keep what you earn.The cover of the March 7 issue of Newsweek shows a picture of conservative icon Limbaugh with a piece of tape covering his mouth and the word "Enough!" So much for disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it. Voltaire could never be a contributor to Newsweek. But David Frum is, and his inside cover story, "Why Rush Is Wrong,"...

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd received a better mortgage deal from subprime lender Countrywide, simply because Dodd was a United States Senator. Today, the United States Senate cleared Dodd of wrongdoing. According to CNBC: In the end, it takes a lot for the country's most elite club to turn on one of its own. Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad have been cleared of any ethics violations for accepting sweetheart, "Friends of Angelo" mortgages from Countrywide. The Senate's deciding to clear Dodd comes just a couple of days after the SEC gave a sweet heart deal to Bank of America -...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Two key Democrat senators were cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee on Friday from year-long investigations about whether mortgages they obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The bipartisan committee, which supported the decision unanimously, did scold the senior lawmakers, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for not being more careful in their dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised...

A powerful House Democrat who has turned down a Republican's call to subpoena records of a mortgage program at Countrywide Financial Corp. received two home loans from the lender. Some information in the lawmaker's mortgage documents raises the possibility they were made through the program, which provided loans to public figures and other favored borrowers often at lower interest rates or with lower origination fees than were available to the general public. The loans were made to Rep. Edolphus Towns of New York, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The panel's ranking Republican, California Rep. Darrell Issa,...

Connecticut investment advisor Peter Schiff (R) is up with a new website for his exploratory Senate campaign (www.schiffforsenate.com), and the site reports he has already raised $465,000 online for his bid. Schiff is one of four Republicans running for the right to face Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) next year, and he looks to be successfully tapping many of the libertarian-leaning donors who helped long shot presidential candidate Ron Paul raise big money for his campaign. Schiff served as an adviser to Paul's campaign. Like Paul, Schiff has been the beneficiary of a series of one-day fundraising moneybombs, in which donors...

Supporters of Peter Schiff's nascent bid for U.S. Senate plan to unleash another money bomb, or one-day donation blitz, tomorrow. The goal, according to the money bomb website, is to raise $1 million in a single day. Schiff has formed an exploratory committee as he contemplates a run for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic incumbent Chris Dodd. Known for his outspoken opposition to federal bailouts and stimulus efforts, Schiff has made frequent appearances on CNBC and other networks and is credited with having foreseen the current financial crisis. He served as economic adviser to Ron Paul, who sought...

Countrywide's strategy to regulate the mortgage industry included favoring influential people by offering sweetheart loans. That included senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd.

EVERYTHING you need to know about false Hope and Change can be found in one picture: the image of President Obama embracing embattled Sen. Chris Dodd. The troubled Democrat is in deep over his sweetheart Countrywide home-loan deals, corporate bailout cash and crony associations. New revelations by Countrywide whistleblower Robert Feinberg confirm what more and more of Dodd's Connecticut constituents are coming to realize: He's a lying weasel. Dodd denied knowledge of the special treatment the subprime-mortgage company had given him and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad on home loans. (Dodd's were worth more than $800,000.) Feinberg flatly contradicted...

Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut announced Friday that he has an early form of prostate cancer. "I feel fine; I'm going to be fine. We caught this early," he said at a news conference in Hartford with his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd.

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Dodd is scheduled to undergo surgery during the Senate's August recess and said he expects to be back at work after a "brief recuperation" at home. "It's something that's very common among men my age,'' said Dodd, who is 65 and the father of two young daughters. "In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.''

News has broken today that Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, Acting Chairman of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Our best wishes and hopes for speedy treatment and a successful recovery of course go out to him. We wonder, though, how Senator Dodd, who is 65 years of age, would fare under provisions contained within several of the health care “reform” proposals or bills currently circulating in the halls of Congress. We also wonder if he would be willing to subject himself to the vagaries and outright mandates already outlined...

News conference 2PM Eastern.

POLITICO Breaking News: ----------------------------------------------------- Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has told the Hartford Courant that he has early-stage prostate cancer. For more information...http://www.politico.com

TWO cut-rate mortgages from failed subprime giant Countrywide Financial continue to cost Sen. Christopher Dodd, shredding the Connecticut Democrat's credibility as he faces re-election next fall. This week, news of the secretive Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Dodd's unusual mortgage deals leaked to The Associated Press. AP reported that at least one witness, Robert Feinberg, starkly contradicted Dodd's account of what favors he knew he was getting from a company that, as a member of the Banking Committee, he helps regulate

Two Democratic Party senators, Chris Doss and Kent Conrad have been "caught" receiving Sub-Prime "VIP" Loans from lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Despite the fact that the lender has testified that both men knew that they were getting a sweetheart deal, Senator Dodd claims he didn't know he was getting favorable rates. This revelation came from Robert Feinberg, the official who handled their loans in testimony to congress. According to the Washington Post:Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004...

Corruption: Chris Dodd's teetering re-election chances weren't helped by news that the senator may have lied about not knowing he got preferential treatment as one of Countrywide Financial's Friends of Angelo program.Can you foreclose on a house of cards? Dodd, D-Conn., may soon find out after the official who handled his mortgages testified before both the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the Senate Ethics Committee that Dodd did in fact know he got sweetheart deals from a company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. As the No. 1 recipient of...

Of course Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd continues to deny he knew he was getting preferential treatment from subprime lender Countrywide Financial in 2003 when he got sweetheart mortgages totaling nearly $800,000. Just as he denied knowing anything about his "stimulus" amendment that guaranteed huge bonuses, financed with your tax dollars, to his sugar daddies at AIG Financial Services. Just as he continues to deny getting his too-good-to-be-true deal on his Irish "cottage" and denies lying on his financial-disclosure forms about that crooked transaction. Just as he continues to deny his wife got lucrative jobs on corporate boards solely because he...

Two powerful Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they knew they got low mortgage-rate deals in a lender's VIP program but thought the special treatment was a "courtesy" or the same as "frequent flier" discounts. Both vehemently denied any wrongdoing or ethical lapse in the mortgage deals, which came to light a year ago and triggered investigations by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "I thought this was like a frequent-flier program," Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said of the special benefits. "I thought nothing of it." Sen. Christopher...