Where Was Dodd on New Mortgage Regs?
It is, without a doubt, a sad day in Chris Dodd world. With today’s announcements from President-Elect Obama, most of the plum Cabinet posts are taken – none of them by Dodd. Short of Department of Energy or Labor(Update: The Washington Post indicates that MI Gov. Jennifer Granholm will take over DoL – sorry Senator, you need to be a tax raising, job killing Canadian-born woman to get a gig in this White House) or something, he’ll be stuck continuing to represent dreary old Connecticut in the U.S. Senate. While this tragic set of circumstances continues to settle in, perhaps our senior Senator could set about answering questions about the ongoing global economic meltdown that was mostly precipitated by Sen. Dodd’s financial backers.
According to an Associated Press investigation, the Bush Administration backed down on new mortgage regulations because the banks, and their cadre of lobbyists, furiously resisted:
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed.
It should be of equal concern that many of the banks involved in the lobbying effort – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Countrywide Financial – were all actors in Senator Dodd’s tawdry little world. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financed election campaigns for U.S. Senate and the Presidency while Countrywide Financial not only pumped up campaign coffers with cash from what are now called “predatory loans”, they also took the additional step of loaning Dodd two mortgages under their “VIP” program for high rollers – saving Dodd $70,000.
Senator Dodd would be among the first to blame the Bush Administration for failing to implement the new regulations, and it appears that this criticism is valid. But the deeper question should be asked is this: what role did Senator Dodd and the constellation of lobbyists allied with him play in killing the regulations that Dodd now blames on President Bush?
On Dodd Watch: Day 172, as the wait for Dodd’s mortgage documents continues, the questions that need to be put to Dodd are piling up. The answers that he has given so far have been woefully inadequate – and that is being kind. Now largely stripped of any chance at promotion by the President-Elect, Dodd has plenty of time to start putting forward some real answers.
6 Comments
Leave a Response
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dodd has become a national joke.
Regularly mentioned on national radio and tv talk shows as such.
He needs to be lambasted as the embarrassment he is to Connecticut.
Only one who seems not to know it, is Dodd himself. Evidence: the fact he thought he had a chance at Obama’s cabinet.
When the Hartford Courant and NYTimes criticizes a liberal democrat, you know it’s time to hang up the old checkbook. Better yet, petition for an ambassadorship, French Guiana would work.
I would be inclined to agree with you, except to say if he cannot even represent the state of Connecticut, would you really want him representing the country? I guess Maybe in the Federated States of Micronesia.
That would do. Look up French Guiana. I doubt we even have an office there.
The Fed States of Micronesia is further away, ok.
Let’s start a petition drive, Dodd for Ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia.
I’ll set it up on Cttaxed.com tomorrow. Should be fun.
And we keep re-electing this guy. It says as much about Connecticut voters as it does about anything else. Hopefully, the Countrywide garbage and the whole destroying-the-economy thing will be enough to wake people up.
Keep up with Dodd’s antics at http://www.theartfuldoddger.blogspot.com.
Done,
Please vote!
http://www.cttaxed.com/?p=286
I also agree, and my thoughts are that if Dodd can not take care and can not represent Connecticut, would it be a wise idea to have represetning our country? Maybe people would start to realize that he is inadequet.