Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

June 17, 2008

Did Chris Dodd Receive Special Mortgage Treatment?

It's been an embarrassing couple of weeks in Connecticut. First we had the ignoring the hit-and-run victim debacle in Hartford. Now it's being said that Chris Dodd, one of our US Senators, received a preferential mortgage from Countrywide, one of the mortgage firms under federal investigations in the subprime mortgage brouhaha.

Dodd denies getting any special deals:

"As a United States senator, I would never ask or expect to be treated differently than anyone else refinancing their home. This suggestion is outrageous and contrary to my entire career in public service," Dodd said in a statement.

"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."

What exactly is being implied? That Dodd is a "FOA," friend of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's chief executive, and that Dodd received mortgages for two homes through some sort of "VIP" program that waived a half percent and eliminated hundreds of dollars in processing fees - ulitmately saving Dodd $75,000 over the life of the loans.

Dodd may not have sought special favor but as the chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee and one of the key players in an upcoming vote on housing rescue legislation, all of his own financial dealings should be above reproach. Did he receive a deal without realizing it? If he did that doesn't speak well for him either, as it shows a lack of attention to detail that we should expect from our representative in the Senate.

Jim Johnson, who was head of Barack Obama's VP search team, resigned from that post because of questions raised over his mortgages from Countrywide. (The questions apparently were a "distraction" to Obama's campaign. There sure are a lot of "distractions" in that camp of late.)

If Dodd wants to take the high road, I suggest he cut the bluff and bluster and remove himself from the debate surrounding the mortgage legislation. And next time, he might be a little more vigilant in his personal dealings.