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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...

If you think moderate Democrats are afraid of voting for ObamaCare, you should see how they react to a potential vote on the Countrywide Financial loan scandal. The House oversight committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon to mark up several minor pieces of legislation. Days before the meeting, California Republican Darrell Issa notified committee Chairman Edolphus Towns that Mr. Issa would call for a vote to subpoena Countrywide documents from Bank of America, which bought the failed subprime lender last year. Recall that, under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Democratic Senators...

The revelation that Countrywide Financial recorded phone conversations as part of a specialized "VIP" mortgage loan program has added another twist to a Republican-led inquiry on Capitol Hill. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who has aggressively pursued the now-defunct Countrywide program for much of this year, said Monday that a call-recording system put in place as early as 2003 could contain evidence of wrongdoing by prominent public officials. He requested a raft of new information about the program and the taping system from Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide in July 2008 as it struggled with mounting losses amid the collapse...

The Talk Shows Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Jim Towey, president of Saint Vincent College and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Tammy Duckworth, an assistant Veterans Affairs secretary.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chuck U. Schumer, D-N.Y.; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; former national Democratic Party...

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., has hoped to break the gridlock in Washington by replacing the public option with health care co-ops. But both sides are so dug in that his idea has made little progress.Liberals have scorned co-ops as a retreat from creating a government insurer. Conservatives see it as a public option by another name. "The only reason it is getting any play at all is because the public option is on the downside right now, we think," said Merrill Matthews, director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, which represents insurers. Conrad, Senate Budget Committee chairman, told Fox...

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...

If Barack Obama hoped to rescue his vision of a health-care system overhaul with his wan effort in the New York Times, a key member of the Senate Democratic Caucus threw a bucket of cold water on those hopes this morning. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) told a television audience that the pursuit of a public option for coverage was a “wasted effort” that would kill any hope of passage in the upper chamber. Obama, said Conrad, should exercise more humility in approaching a government role in American health care — and even Obama’s key Cabinet member agrees: “Look, the fact...

The Talk Shows Sunday, August 16th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association; John Rother, executive vice president for policy and strategy at AARP.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): FreedomWorks chairman and former Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas; Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Gov. Bill Ritter, D-Colo.FACE THE NATION (CBS): White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; former...

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...

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...

WASHINGTON – A committee that investigated VIP mortgage deals for Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad has cleared both of them of breaking Senate rules. The Select Committee on Ethics tells Dodd of Connecticut and Conrad of North Dakota in separate letters that it has found "no substantial credible evidence" that their Countrywide mortgages broke Senate gift rules.

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,...

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) lashed out at Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) after the Republican congressman pushed the powerful Democratic senator to divulge details about low-interest loans he received from Countrywide Financial. In letters provided to POLITICO, Conrad has accused Issa of attempting to impugn his name in a GOP inquiry into the Countrywide mortgage scandal. Conrad said that the Senate Ethics Committee is the “appropriate forum to resolve this matter,” not Issa’s Republican staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “It is unfortunate that you chose to damage my good name in your report without giving me the...

That kooky health care cooperative idea is still the Democrats' best shot at bipartisanship. When Sen. Kent Conrad first proposed the idea of health care cooperatives back in June, the response was somewhere between Huh? and Huh. But as the debate over reform escalates, the attitude toward the formerly long-shot proposal may be getting closer to Aha! The past few weeks have amounted to a long, cold shower for Democratic health care proposals. First Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told Congress that the House and Senate health committee bills would not only fail to "bend the curve" of ever-rising...

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 constituents in Connecticut 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...

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...

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...

Sen. Chris Dodd is overdue for a long talk with his spokesman, Bryan DeAngelis, who wrote: “As the Dodds have said from the beginning, they did not seek or expect any special rates or terms on their loans and they never received any; they were never offered special or sweetheart deals and if anyone had made such an offer, they would have severed that relationship immediately.” That statement is false: Senator Dodd himself has acknowledged that he knew he was given a “VIP” offer from Countrywide, the disgraced mortgage lender where CEO Angelo Mozilo’s “Friends of Angelo” program traded sweetheart...

Whoa. It's looking like Sen. Chris Dodd's involvement with a sub prime-lending company warrants far more than a mere Senate Ethics Committee look-see. Or so suggests closed-door committee testimony from a fomer executive of the firm in question. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota both got sweetheart mortgage deals a few years back from Angelo Mozilo, CEO of subprime-mortgage giant Countrywide Financial.

With each day Senator Chris Dodd's hold on the Senate seat he has held for almost 30 years grows more tenuous. As the Chair of the Senate Banking committee he deserves a share of of the blame for the economic mess we are in now, on top of that, are the recent scandals in which he has been involved. Ten months ago it was disclosed that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Received TWO VIP Loans from Sub-Prime Lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Senator Dodd claimed he didn't know he was receiving a "sweetheart"...

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 got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home...

WASHINGTON – 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 got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing...

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

Senate Democrats are going to need help from Republicans to get President Obama's ambitious plan to reinvent the health care system over the goal line, a top lawmaker acknowledged on Sunday. "Look, there are not the votes for Democrats to do this just on our side of the aisle," said Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the powerful budget committee. Even though the Democrats enjoy a majority in the Senate, some are skittish about the financial or political costs of the proposals. And Republicans said they will continue their opposition to a plan they claim is simply a government takeover...

Democrats are becoming bolder about their idea that middle-class familes get the option of joining a government insurance plan in any overhaul of the health care system. Their fervor carries a risk. Liberals, citing polls that show support for a public plan, say they are increasingly frustrated with negotiations to make the idea more palatable to Republicans. Moderates, however, warn that abandoning the talks could jeopardize efforts to draft a bill that can pass a closely divided Senate. "It is important not to draw lines in the sand and rule out options before they are fully explored," Sen. Kent Conrad,...

An Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republican report Countrywide Financial Corporation’s infamous VIP and Friends of Angelo Program offers new insight into the inner workings of Countrywide’s efforts to buy friends in critical government and industry positions affecting the company’s business interests. “This investigation finds that Countrywide embarked in a determined and calculated effort to buy influence – employees openly weighed the political influence of targeted officials when deciding what perks to offer,” said Issa. “Countrywide VIPs in positions of key responsibility didn’t innocently stumble into loans with reduced rates and waived fees – they were recruited into the program...

If they gave out Olympic medals for fiscal irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, silver and bronze. -- North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, July 2008, commenting on a projected 2009 deficit of $482 billion. I would describe it as a good beginning. -- Sen. Conrad, February 2009, commenting on President Barack Obama's 2010 budget.Projected deficit: $1.75 trillion. If you thought being a spend-happy president in the middle of a recession was hard, consider that it could always be worse. You could, instead, be one of Congress's self-acclaimed deficit hawks. Spare a special thought for Mr. Conrad, head of the...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget came under criticism from an unexpected source yesterday - Sen. Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who vowed to give the spending plan a "thorough scrubbing." The blast from within the ranks of Obama's own party comes as Congress is girding for battle over the budget document - which pays for health reform, clean energy and other programs with $1 trillion in tax hikes over the next decade. "I am concerned about the long-term buildup of debt," the North Dakota senator told CNBC. "I'm especially concerned about the second...

Some Senate Democrats are joining the Republican chorus in opposition to the $900 billion economic stimulus package. President Obama is stressing bipartisanship when it comes to the $900 billion economic stimulus plan being considered in the Senate, and he may get it -- in unity of opposition. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he "can't believe that the president isn't embarrassed about" the stimulus packages that have passed the House and the Senate appropriations and finance committees. "It'll need to change if it'll do any good. I mean, things like $150 million honey bee insurance and $650 million to...

In July, federal authorities indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on corruption charges on the grounds that Alaska's Prince of Earmarks concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts and improvements to his Alaska home provided by a powerful oil services company. Also this summer, amid the mortgage meltdown, newspapers reported that a number of senators -- including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; and Barack Obama, D.-Ill. -- were the beneficiaries of sweetheart home loans. In June, the Senate Ethics Committee began an initial look into Dodd's and Conrad's discounted Countrywide Financial VIP loans, as is...

Other senators touted the plan's affordability to U.S. taxpayers and its efforts to provide energy in environmentally friendly ways. The plan is estimated to cost $85 billion, but would be offset with "loophole closers and other revenues," including money from the new leases and from closing a oil industry manufacturing tax credit. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the oil drilling portion of the plan would open up areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico as well as areas off the eastern United States. He said the plan calls for a 50-mile buffer zone. Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia...

In the Senate, it nowadays apparently takes a self-appointed, biparitsan "gang" of senators to get past the partisan gridlock. For instance, there was the Gang of 14 group of senators who helped the Senate get beyond an impasse on judicial appointments a few years ago. Today, a new group of senators calling itself the Gang of Ten, announced that it had arrived at a compromise energy proposal meant to break the partisan logjam that exists on the issue. The group's members are: Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu...

Sweetheart mortgages given by Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, to elected officials and government bureaucrats seem tailor-made for an ethics inquiry by Congress, especially as the country is seeing a rising tide of voter anger in this presidential election year due to the massive $300 bn bailout of the housing industry at taxpayers’ expense. The mortgages at issue were allegedly given to Congressional members and staffers championing this record bailout, a bailout that now surpasses the taxpayer cost of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Mark Souder...

Will there be a MORTGAGE-GATE controversy in the 2008 election? Judicial Watch has filed a complaint against the sweetheart deal that Senator Obama Barack has received in terms of a mortgage. So has Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, who is chair of the Senate Banking Committee. One must ask the question are these two Democrats: are they Dumb, Dishonest, or both -- to have accepted these sweetheart mortgage deals for their personal life? Should the US Justice Department start investigating these politicians and others for such deals to receive favorable treatment in legislation now that the mortgage industry is in serious...

Presidential nominee Barack Obama joins the list of several other high-profile Democratic Party members who received highly favorable home loans. Obama, D-Ill., reportedly purchased a $1.65 million mansion in Chicago through a “super, super jumbo” loan he received from Northern Trust Bank in Illinois, the Washington Post reports. The portion of the money financed through the lender ($1.32 million) was offered to the Obamas at an unusually low discount interest rate locked in at 5.625 percent over the life of the 30-year fixed-rate loan, which was below the average of what a typical Chicagoan pursuing a similar low loan rate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday said Congress should examine Countrywide Financial Corp's mortgage loans to Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad. "My view is that these allegations should be considered by the appropriate bodies, and I understand that the Senate Ethics Committee has already begun to look into the matter," Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.

While liberal journalists have moved on from the Christopher Dodd-Countrywide Financial scandal, questions linger about the sweetheart loans he got in 2003 from Angelo Mozilo. At the time, Mr. Mozilo was chairman and CEO of Countrywide, which would become a leading player in the subprime-mortgage crisis and would benefit greatly if Congress passes Sen. Dodd's lending-industry bailout bill. Does anyone believe Sen. Dodd when he says he and his wife did not "anticipate any special treatment" from Countrywide and were unaware they got it? A senator get treated royally everywhere he goes. He gets his jollies from the rump kissing...

The loud "thud" you just heard over in the corner of the Senate hearing room was Senator Chris Dodd's vice presidential hopes hitting the wall. The Senator was the second major political figure caught up in and possibly brought down by various aspects of the mortgage mess in general and Countrywide Financial in particular. The Senator, a Democrat from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee which regulates mortgage lending, was named in an article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Associated Press and earlier by Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, as one of two senators – the other being...

The Wall Street Journal explains today that Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Kent Conrad received special “VIP” treatment from Countrywide, a company that has been heavily criticized in the sub-prime mortgage “crisis.” It turns out that while Senators Dodd and Conrad were self-righteously railing against companies that offered sub-prime loans, they were refinancing their homes with special deals from Countrywide that the average American did not have access to. Now, these Senators are backing a $300 billion bailout of lenders and borrowers who made bad decisions on mortgages. Countrywide stands to gain a lot from the bailout, which is raising...

When it comes to charging abuse in markets like the mortgage business, American politicians, right up the ladder, should zip their lips. They're not ones to talk. That's becoming ever more painfully clear with reports like the one Thursday from Condé Nast Portfolio suggesting that several key pols got favored treatment on their personal mortgages. The lucky winners included folks like Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), plus several former Cabinet secretaries: ex-Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson; ex-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (who is to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday) and ex-UN Ambassador and...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender at the center of the US housing crisis, regularly gave loans on favorable terms to prominent lawmakers and former cabinet members, according to US media. The preferential treatment for senators including Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a recent presidential candidate, was approved by Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. CondeNast Portfolio magazine first broke the story on Wednesday, saying the recipients of the favorable terms were known as "Friends of Angelo" in internal company documents and e-mails. "Make an...

Dealings with Countrywide Financial Corp. are becoming a liability in political circles. Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, announced Saturday that he will donate $10,500 to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds homes for low-income people, to offset a discount he apparently received on a mortgage loan from Countrywide, an ailing lender that Bank of America Corp. plans to acquire. Sen. Conrad said a review of the $1.2 million loan he received in 2002 to buy a vacation home in Bethany Beach, Del., indicates that he received a discount of one percentage point on fees. The senator said...

WASHINGTON - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Saturday he is donating $10,500 to charity and refinancing his loan on an apartment building after reviewing documents showing he received special treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp. Conrad said it appears that Countrywide waived 1 point on his mortgage for a Bethany Beach, Del., vacation home. He said he would donate the equivalent amount of money to Habitat for Humanity. "Although I did not ask for or know that I was receiving a discount, and even though I was offered a competitive loan from another lender, I do not want to...

You're not going to believe this about Countrywide : "Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide’s “V.I.P.” program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans. Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke....

When Senator Kent Conrad wanted a mortgage for his beach house,he turned to a Washington insider, Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage giant, who then put the senator in touch with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. The ensuing telephone call between Mr. Conrad of North Dakota and Mr. Mozilo led to two Countrywide mortgages, including one in which the company bent its rules to give Mr. Conrad a loan. Those loans are among a number of Countrywide mortgages at the center of an examination into whether a number of top politicians in...

WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, a leader of Congress' efforts to help homeowners ensnared in the subprime mortgage meltdown, reportedly got special treatment on his own mortgages from the CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp., a company whose practices he has called "abusive."At least one other lawmaker, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also benefited from the VIP treatment after placing a personal call to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo seeking a mortgage.Both senators say they weren't aware they were getting special deals.Still, their involvement in a special program that awarded discounts and waived fees for "friends" of Mozilo —...

WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd reportedly received two mortgages under a special Countrywide Financial Corp. program that gave preferential interest rates to "friends" of the company's chairman. A spokesman for Dodd, D-Conn., said Friday that the senator did not seek any special treatment.

Two influential US senators got "VIP" loans from a subprime mortgage lender saving them tens of thousands of dollars. Democrats, Chris Dodd, Connecticut and Kent Conrad of NDakota, received highly favorable loans under "Friend of Angelo," a reference to embattled Countrywide head Angelo Mozilo, Condé Nast Portfolio reported. Dodd chairs the Senate Banking Committee; Conrad chairs the Budget Committee and is a member of the Finance Committee. Others who received "FOA" loans include Alphonso Jackson, HUD Secy under Pres Bush ( resigned in April), and Donna Shalala, Clinton's HHS secretary. The report came one day after Democratic heavyweight Jim Johnson...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama is considering former top military leaders among his possible running mates, according to a senator who met Tuesday with the Democratic presidential candidate's vice presidential vetting team. North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press said the team asked him about potential candidates from three broad categories _ current top elected officials, former top elected officials and former top military leaders. Conrad would not disclose which names they discussed, and the Obama campaign has been keeping the process a closely guarded secret. "We talked about many names," Conrad said, including "some that are out...