Ethics Committee Examining Countrywide Loans to Senators
There are a couple of noteworthy updates to our post yesterday on the Countrywide V.I.P. or “Friends of Angelo” mortgage loans to Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Kent Conrad (D-ND).
First, Conrad says that he’s begun “talking to the Ethics Committee” after a D.C. watchdog filed a complaint Friday. The panel does not comment on investigations, but it’s a sign that at least a preliminary inquiry is under way.
Second, Dodd spoke to reporters for the first time since the story broke last Friday. Up until today, he’d only responded with a brief statement. Dodd again denied that he’d sought or knew he was receiving any special treatment. At the same time, he said today ($) that he’d been told in 2003 he’d been designated a V.I.P. account. He never asked what that meant, he said, but assumed it was a normal status bestowed on Countrywide customers who had an additional mortgage with the company.
Conrad has said that he’d personally called Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo to inquire about obtaining a mortgage, but did not expect or notice any special treatment.
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4 comments
leftyfork
June 18, 2008, 12:39 p.m.
Absolute BS. I have three mortgages with Countrywide, with no VIP status whatsoever. Any fool who believes this excuse, is , well, a fool.
hartman_john
June 24, 2008, 10:16 p.m.
Dodd and Conrad would be wise to come clean immediately. It’s bad enough that we’ve had to endure 7+ years of GOP shenanigans. However, Democrats, especially those who’ve been ensconced inside the Beltway for extended periods, inevitably develop a sense that they “deserve” special treatment. Afterall, their constituents keep returning them to office.
My question is why isn’t the so-called mainstream media all over this story. Thanks ProPublica. Keep shining the light.
Barry
July 3, 2008, 8:22 p.m.
This is part of the quasi-criminally legal system of corruption that is so pervasive in Washington. It’s loathful and disgusting. Why do we need 35,000 lobbyists in Washington? Where is all of that money going? I know where it is coming from. My pockets in the form of reduced economic vitality due to the loathful acts of deceit.
We need more transparency into the government process then officials won’t be tempted to cross the line. Any lobbyist contact with government officials should be required to signed in to a publicly viewable online calendar, done on government property and in a room where a videotape recorder is used to document every conversation. Then the tapes uploaded to a government web site for public viewing.
This is surely child’s play comparatively and I don’t doubt the integrity of either man involved but corporate and foreign government lobbying has contributed mightily to the economic collapse we are now witnessing.
William Thomsen
July 16, 2008, 3:27 p.m.
So senators have been recieving extra benefits due to their position? I am not surprised.
What kind of result should we expect when an ethics Committee full of senators has to investigate other senators using rules made by senators? I suppose it would be similar to only have convicted felons sit on juries.
Who will watch the watchers? I guess the watchers are so good they can watch themselves and each other.
Perhaps we should change the government so that conflicts of interest are not so apparent.
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