2008.07.04: July 4, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Dominican Republic: Politics: Congress: Election2008 - Dodd: Banks: Boston Globe: Richard Parker writes: Chris Dodd's VIP treatment
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2008.07.04: July 4, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Dominican Republic: Politics: Congress: Election2008 - Dodd: Banks: Boston Globe: Richard Parker writes: Chris Dodd's VIP treatment
Richard Parker writes: Chris Dodd's VIP treatment
Forty years ago, Dodd's father, the late Senator Thomas Dodd, was officially censured for personal misappropriation of more than $100,000 in campaign contributions. It ruined him as a senator and a man - and left an indelible mark on his young son Chris, who valiantly managed his father's (failed) comeback campaign four years later. The "clairvoyance" Dodd insists he didn't have before taking Countrywide's sweetheart deal wasn't what he needed; memory would have sufficed. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.
Richard Parker writes: Chris Dodd's VIP treatment
Chris Dodd's VIP treatment
Richard Parker
July 4, 2008
"I'm no clairvoyant. There was no red flag to me that we were getting some special treatment."
-Senator Christopher Dodd
Poor Chris Dodd can't catch a break this year. Connecticut's senior senator, after an underwhelming presidential campaign - in which voters kept confusing him with Joe Biden, that other highly qualified Northeastern senator no one would vote for - has suddenly found himself in hot water over, of all things, the mortgage on his home.
Two weeks ago, the Banking Committee chairman was busy introducing a $300 billion rescue package for the subprime mortgage industry and its victims when news broke that Countywide Financial - subprime's Enron - had given Dodd special "VIP" mortgage rates on homes in Connecticut and Washington, saving him $75,000 over the life of the mortgages. Dodd's initial reaction was wounded outrage. How could anyone think that he'd done something wrong? After it became clear he'd known he was getting VIP handling (on orders from Angelo Mozilo, the chairman-founder of Countrywide), Dodd backtracked, insisting he hadn't realized what "VIP" meant.
With 8,000 US families facing foreclosure daily, the $200 per month Dodd's been saving doesn't sound so small - and Mozilo's own toxic reputation, especially after he admitted pocketing $142 million last year just as Countrywide started sinking like the Titanic, hasn't helped.
Dodd hasn't been the only one caught up in the scandal. Senator Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also got Countrywide's VIP treatment - as did former Clinton-era heavyweights Donna Shalala, Alphonso Jackson, Richard Holbrooke, and Jim Johnson. Conrad quickly mailed off a check for the estimated value of his VIP treatment to Habitat for Humanity, and announced he was taking out new mortgages. Shalala, Jackson, and Johnson meanwhile have ducked the press - though Johnson, who was heading the search for Obama's vice presidential candidate, had to hastily resign that role.
Dodd, however, keeps insisting - despite growing statewide criticism and a sharp drop in his poll ratings - that he has no plans to give up his VIP benefits, because he has done nothing wrong.
Frankly, what will come of all this remains to be seen. It's a busy election year, and voters and the press are focused on bigger issues. Congressional ethics committees will take a look-see, but won't likely issue any ruling before Election Day. The Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns have been notably quiet perhaps because Senator Obama is the Senate's top recipient of Countrywide's largesse, and Senator McCain trails not too far behind. (Overall, Countrywide's contributions have favored Republicans, 2 to 1.)
There's a painful personal note here for Dodd. Forty years ago, Dodd's father, the late Senator Thomas Dodd, was officially censured for personal misappropriation of more than $100,000 in campaign contributions. It ruined him as a senator and a man - and left an indelible mark on his young son Chris, who valiantly managed his father's (failed) comeback campaign four years later. The "clairvoyance" Dodd insists he didn't have before taking Countrywide's sweetheart deal wasn't what he needed; memory would have sufficed.
The $300 billion subprime rescues package Dodd is now managing may be in trouble, with critics tarring it as the "Dodd Countrywide bill." We voters in turn need to do a little remembering ourselves here, because this bill is the latest "rescue package" in a long ignominious history that includes corporate bailouts such as the Chrysler and Lockheed salvage operations; the savings and loan rescue; the two Mexican rescues, the Asian rescue; the airline rescue after 9/11; the ongoing bailout of agribusiness; and lest we forget, the bailout of Wall Street and Bear Stearns just two months ago.
A chief beneficiary of the Dodd bill is Bank of America, which has just bought Countrywide. If Dodd's bill passes, taxpayers will take on much of the Bank of America's risk of further portfolio default - a move worth billions to the bank.
Washington desperately needs to stanch the forced liquidation of millions of American homeowners. Yet once again, the benefits of its rescue efforts will accrue unequally - stacked heavily in favor of the wealthy and the powerful - because in American politics, as in Orwell's "1984," some are more equal than others.
Especially the VIPs.
Economist Richard Parker is a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center.
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Headlines: July, 2008; RPCV Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic); Figures; Peace Corps Dominican Republic; Directory of Dominican Republic RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Dominican Republic RPCVs; Politics; Congress; Election2008 - Dodd; Banking; Connecticut
When this story was posted in July 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act Senator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them." |
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Story Source: Boston Globe
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