Chris Dodd to electorate: you’re dumb

Posted by Martin on June 18th, 2008 filed in Journalism, Martin, WTF

Oh dear. Looks like the media are starting to cover the case of the Sub-Prime Six, a group of prominent Democrats (and one Republican, so far), who benefited from cheap mortgage loans and waived points via Countrywide Home Loans’ VIP program, the personal slush fund for rewarding compliant legislators created by CEO Angelo Mozilo.

The most prominent and obviously compromised hypocrite in this rogue’s gallery is one Senator Christopher Dodd, the pompous windbag from Connecticut who also chairs the Senate Banking Committee, (which as you may know has responsibility for oversight of the, ahem, mortgage industry).

Dodd (D-Conn.) — who reportedly received the special treatment as part of the company’s “Friends of Angelo” program, named for chief executive Angelo Mozilo — said loan officers told him and his wife in 2003 that they would be part of an exclusive program. But the couple assumed the plan gave them unspecified courtesies and did not ask whether it included a waiver of the fees, known as points, or a reduced interest rate on their loans, the senator said.

He doesn’t know much about mortgage loans does he? considering, you know, that he regulates the banking industry. The most junior loan officer at a one-branch bank could have told him that lower interest rate = points. It all has to do with the present value of money, making a profit on home lending, and all that jazz.

They knew “there was a VIP section that we were in” but thought it was given to them because they had been with Countrywide since 1999 and had two mortgages, Dodd said.

“We literally just assumed it was a courtesy. . . . There was no red flag to me that we were getting anything special,” Dodd said.

It didn’t cross his immensely gifted mind that perhaps, just maybe, he was being treated as a VIP because he’s, like, a US Senator that oversees all the mortgage lending in the United States? No?

Still, his story has subtly changed since he called allegations of wrongdoing ‘outrageous’ and made this legalistic non-denial earlier in the week:

When my wife and I refinanced our loans in 2003, we did not seek or expect any favorable treatment. Just like millions of other Americans, we shopped around and received competitive rates.

Notice he does NOT say “we were not offered, nor did we receive favorable treatment”, because that, as he knows, would have been an outright LIE.

The MSM were leaving well alone, but now the WaPo have run a story maybe the NYT and others could run a little paragraph on page D14. You know, like they would if Dodd was a Republican.