Mortgage Meltdown: The bill comes due for Chris Dodd's "excellent adventure"

Sunday, the U.S. Treasury announced the inevitable - a takeover of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - which insure over two thirds of the mortgages issued to millions of American homeowners.  Both of these quasi-public-private agencies have been living large over the years, locking up political cover as their bad decisions and billions of debt ensued.

One of their chief apologists has been our own U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking and Urban Affairs Committee, which has oversight of such matters. Dodd has consistently sought to allay our fears about Fannie and Freddie, saying they were fundamentally sound.

Dodd has been asleep at the switch for many years now, especially during his ill-fated and pathetic run for the President last year which ended in the snows of Iowa. During that time, the mortgage industry burned while Dodd fiddled in Des Moines. His committee held no hearings of note and did nothing as the foreclosures started piling up. The Federal Reserve did most of the heavy lifting, but to no avail. .

And let us not forget that Dodd has still, still not given the public the documents surrounding his sweetheart deal on two mortgages he holds with Countrywide Financial. Those two deals on homes he owns in Washington, D.C. and East Haddam saved Dodd over $70,000 according to some documents that have been made available.

But the other details concerning the terms and other savings are still being held close to the vest. Dodd promised he would disclose all the documents, saying there “:would be no story,” as soon as the two mortgage bailout bills were passed and signed into law. That was late July. Dodd then went on vacation at his other home in Ireland.  Even Congressman Charles Rangel of New York has disclosed his various business dealings which involve no-interest loans of a vacation digs in the Dominican Republic. I mean, if Charlie Rangel can come clean, why not Chris Dodd?

But he did pop up recently to attack Gov. Sarah Palin and her qualifications to run for Vice President. Dodd certainly was in the running for the Democratic VEEP, but maybe the documents he gave the Obama vetters gave them pause. At least Sarah Palin pays an honest mortgage.

All the details of the Fannie and Freddie takeover are trickling out Sunday, but it is sure to be the costliest corporate rescue of all time and we the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for it.

Chris Dodd told us this wouldn’t happen. All we had to do was trust him or trust the lobbyists from Fannie and Freddie that obviously have his ear. They sure have showered thousands of dollars in campaign contributions on his campaigsn for Senate and President to qualfiy as trusted friends.

Dodd argued that neither Bush or Cheney could be trusted with lowering the cost of energy since both were oilmen.  Would that same parrallel apply to Dodd, that he can’t offer anything because he has been bought off with two mortgages and failed to ask the tough questions about Fannie and Freddie when they were paying for his Presidential quest?

http://www.everydayrepublican.com/2008/09/07/dodds-bitter-harvest-fannie-freddie-implode/