Chris Dodd would've been better off playing "Checkers" than "Charades"

I've posted before on the surreal Chris Dodd "now you see 'em;  now you don;t" "disclosure" of his Counrtywide mortgage documents.

The day after, the Wall Street Journal agreed with yours truly that this was a gambit of Nixonian deception. calling it a "modified, limited mortgage hangout"

Well, rather than make this an hourly ticker of reaction to this bizarre event, I've allowed a few days to let the dust settle, and I must say I'm feeling a lot more aligned with conventional wisdom on this than one I am accustomed to feeling; Take this morning's Hartford Courant  editorial

  Sen. Dodd Disappoints

Countrywide Fiasco • Releases documents, but fails to admit his error in judgment

Seven months after a magazine article disclosed that Sen. Christopher Dodd was among several high-profile federal officials who got loans on favorable terms from now-failed mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp., he has sought to set the record straight. It was a disappointing performance.On Monday, Connecticut's senior senator and his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, held a press conference at which they released documents related to the refinancing of the couple's Washington and East Haddam homes. They also made a detailed defense against claims they got special treatment.The couple announced that they're going to refinance both homes, this time through a third party, "to try and insulate ourselves against an accusation that we're trying to get some special deal." Mr. Dodd also apologized to the people of Connecticut for not releasing the documents sooner.Yet he doesn't admit that accepting the loans was an error in judgment. Instead, he seems to be apologizing for political miscalculations. 

The Courant points out the documents Dodd refuses to share with the CT public "were scrawled with the letters "FOA," a reference to Friends of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's chief executive at the time"

Senator Dodd admits he knew he was receiving "enhanced customer service" from Countrywide, yet seems painfully obtuse to the glaring problem that it's rather clear the only reason such "enhanced customer service" was offered to him was by virtue of his senior position on the Senate Banking Committee. 

If the idea was an hour of invitation only viewing by the press was going to result in Senator Dodd recovering his public standing in CT; well, it failed.  See also this  , this and this

Perhaps Dodd ought to have looked at a similar effort to address a crisis a politician faced concering his personal finances. In 1952, a young U.S. Senator faced charges he had personally profited from holding public office. And Richard Nixon didn't explain himself before some hastily assembled closed star chamber of the local California media. He put the "Checkers speech" on national television.      

He followed with a complete financial history of his personal assets, finances, and debts, including his mortgages, life insurance, and loans, all of which had the effect of painting him as living a rather austere lifestyle. He denied that his wife Pat had a mink coat; instead, she wore a "respectable Republican cloth coat."

I suspect Senator Dodd couldn;t do this, since even in an affluent state like CT very few of his constituents own three homes, including a vacation retreat in Ireland.     Remarkable how someone who has never worked in the private sector can accumulate vast wealth, isn't it. 

Still,had Dodd held a timely, public open exposition of his personal finances, however, funky the specifics might be; he'd have at least earned some points for being willing to man up and take his lumps. But the game of charades he's playing makes him look like yet another dissembling politician trying to scam the voters.

Chris Dodd really ought to look at the career of Richard Nixon. The Checkers Speech was a runaway success.    The "modified limited hangout" was an unmitigated political disaster. But this is the path Senator Dodd has taken. Which is deeply ironic for a politician first elected as a "Watergate baby" in 1974;  the circle has made a full cycle; has it not?

About the time Chris Dodd was starting his career in Washington this guy was finishing his up in Southeast Asia. Yep, the cycle may have come full circle.