Modern Day Robber Barons (and other crooks) in the government!

Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons gave the term its most enduring expression. The theme had much popularity during the Great Depression as there was widespread public scorn against big business.

L-R, Chris Dodd, Angelo Mozilo, Kent Conrad

Gary Fouse:

Remember when I posted the information from the Center for Responsive Politics showing who the largest Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac money contribution recipients in Congress were? (Chris Dodd, John Kerry and Barack Obama). Well, now we know that Chris Dodd got a sweetheart deal from Countrywide to refinance his mortgage.

The full story can be found at:
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/top-5/2008/06/12/Countrywide-Loan-Scandal

Dodd, and others got discounts that folks like you and I would never get. Guess what this discount is called? The V.I.P. "Friends of Angelo" rate. This was a special deal for prominent people that waived points, lender fees and other borrowing rules.

Angelo Mozilo is the CEO of Countrywide, another company implicated in the financial mess. It was his loan to Jim Johnson that caused Johnson to resign from Barack Obama's VP search committee.

Others who got special V.I.P. treatment are;

Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who is chairman of the Budget Committee and member of the Finance Committee,

10/03/08 Conrad Welcomes House Passage of Plan to Stabilize the Economy

4 Days Later: Delegation Announces More Than $400 Million in Federal Loans to Expand, Improve Electric Service in North Dakota

Alphonso Jackson, former head of Health and Human Services under President George W Bush,

Donna Shalala (after leaving the Clinton cabinet)

and former State Department offical Richard Holbrooke.

The discounts amounted to a few hundred dollars to a couple of thousand dollars.

Dodd has claimed that he didn't know he was getting a discount. Countrywide didn't tell him, according to the Senator, who is chairman of the Banking Committee.

See also - in the Wall Street Journal -

Dodd and Countrywide:
The Senator should take the witness stand

Then NOTA BENE that just last week Dodd co-sponsored, and the Senate passed, a Resolution to establish Oct. 19-25 as

National CHARACTER COUNTS Week.

If the global economy weren't in the process of collapse, that level of CHUTZPAH might be hilarious. But as it is, I'm not finding it very funny.

Dodd was part of the "Watergate class of '74" which CNN pundit David Gergen credited with bringing

"a fresh burst of liberal energy to the Capitol"

(Wikipedia).

Fresh in 1974, maybe, but stale and rotten now, more than three decades later. Unfortunately, Connecticut voters cannot oust Dodd for another two years.