Remember this?
In July of 2008, Dodd told Jesse Hamilton of the Hartford Courant that he would release personal mortgage documentation from Countrywide “in some time."
In October, he then told “The Courant’s Rick Green that he had no plans to release documents from his $800,000 in sweetheart mortgages from subprime titan Countrywide Financial.”
In December, the Connecticut Post wondered, “Isn’t it time that U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd came clean and released documents on two mortgages hew received from Countrywide Financial Corp. that has already sparked a Senate ethics inquiry?”
Today, we are still waiting for Dodd to come clean. From the Wall Street Journal:
The rest of the press corps may have moved on, but we’d still like to know. All the more so because former Countrywide Financial loan officer Robert Feinberg told us last fall that Mr. Dodd knowingly saved thousands of dollars on his refinancing of two properties in 2003 as part of a special program for the influential. Mr. Feinberg also reported that he has internal company documents that prove Mr. Dodd knew he was getting preferential treatment as a friend of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s then-CEO, and Mr. Feinberg has offered to provide those documents to investigators.
Just before Mr. Dodd made his promise, Bank of America closed its acquisition of Countrywide and Mr. Dodd has continued to oversee BofA and the rest of the mortgage industry as Chairman of Senate Banking. He will now play a lead role in drafting legislation affecting the very business that gave him preferential treatment, yet he still refuses to release the mortgage documents that would illuminate this treatment. As the Senate Ethics Committee examines this case, Mr. Dodd’s office reports that he is cooperating with the investigation and that he still intends to make good on his six-month-old pledge. But nothing in the Senate ethics process prevents Mr. Dodd from coming clean with the public whenever he wishes.
We suspect there’s at least one habit of the 110th Congress that won’t change in the 111th: The Members think they can get away with anything — and usually do.
This is the ethical Congress that replaced the Republican culture of corruption. Here is Chris Dodd’s website. You can send he an e-mail there. Or you can call his office. His number is (202) 224-2823.
