Dodd Offers Up Some Records, But Still Not Enough
The New York Times reports that months after promising to do so, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has offered up some details of the mortgage loans he got from Countrywide, the lending institution that got bought out by Bank of America last year in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis. But access to the records were rather limited.
The Times:
That finally came this month, but in an oddly limited viewing of documents offered by the senator in his Connecticut office, not the Capitol. Reporters could peruse, but not take or copy, the documents. They showed strong credit ratings for Mr. Dodd and his wife, who firmly insisted they received a lower interest rate through normal negotiation, not insiders’ pandering. The delay, said Senator Dodd, was due to waiting on a Senate ethics inquiry that has offered no results so far.
Hmmm. My list of people not to elect next time they come up may be getting longer.
Lets put it simply, Senator. You are surrounded by scrutiny for appearing to have received a sweetheart deal because you’re the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee!! So, you do what? Release the records at home where you know there will be limited access by national publications? And for a limited amount of time?
Come on. Do you think we’re stupid? Well, maybe. Why else would you have done it this way?
I agree with Ed Morrissey’s analysis:
And as a matter of fact, Dodd still hasn’t been responsive. He promised to release his documents to public view, not to flash them momentarily to a select group of reporters barred from taking notes or making copies. Even the Times doesn’t buy that as “release”.
The Times’s conclusion on all of this?
No one has accused Senator Dodd of serious wrongdoing. Rather, the suspicion is he might have been tripped up by the moneyed Washington subculture where powerful incumbents are invited to get something wholesale.
I again agree with Ed that in the real world we call that corruption. But maybe I can put this in a way that a Democrat might understand…
No Way. No How. No Opaqueness.
I’m one of Dodd’s constituents. I guess I know where one of my last emails of the day is going. But I tell you. Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is already on my “do not elect” list after the shenanigans at the end of October. Where will Dodd find himself on my list in November 2010?
His actions in the next year and a half or so and the development of any cases against him may tell.
