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House, Senate leaders finalize details of sweeping financial overhaul By Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, June 25, 2010; 12:26 PM Key House and Senate lawmakers approved far-reaching new financial rules early Friday after weeks of division, delay and frantic last-minute dealmaking. The dawn compromise set up a potential vote in both houses of Congress next week that could send the landmark legislation to President Obama by July 4. The final and most arduous compromise began to fall into place just after midnight. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) agreed to scale back a controversial provision that would have forced the...

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), a leading Democrat whose political star fell along with the nation's economy, is expected to announce Wednesday that he has decided against running for reelection this November, according to sources briefed on the decision. Dodd, in his fifth term, chairs the Senate Banking Committee. His retirement would be the second such announcement by a Senate Democrat in 24 hours; North Dakota's Byron Dorgan said Tuesday that he would not run this fall.

Perhaps it's the Russ Feingold influence. Feingold, when he served in the Wisconsin Legislature before traipsing off to Washington, was the bulldog behind legislation that outlawed gifts and other perks to legislators, things like free dinners and drinks, pen sets and the like, or even a cup of coffee. The idea was that legislators ought not be beholden to anyone except the people who elected them. Conversely, lawmakers are not to lavish favors on lobbyists and other influence peddlers. So by law they are to pay for their own meals and reimburse their hosts when they get something of value...

Senator Dodd, yao have a wonderful opportunity to showcase the healthcare system that you are attempting to legislate on the people of the United States. You meet the guidelines of the Obama Healthcare reform for getting end-of-life counselling. You are 65 and have a potentially life-threatening condition. Please submit yourself to evaluation and determine if your life is worth the cost of saving. After all, you've voted in a stimulus package that is bankrupting us and we need to save money any way we can. Oh, and please don't tell me that you're keeping your gold-plated congressional healthcare-for-life package in...

Per MSNBC

When I read last week about the hearings regarding Senator Conrad, Senator Dodd, and the friend of Angelo, I immediately recognized a serious scandal. Some of that has to do with my background in mortgages, and some simply has to do with common sense.

Dodd's Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company By Kevin Rennie No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG. Dodd has been one of the company's favorite recipient of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd's wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well. From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg-Dodd served as an "independent" director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty...