Today's Tom Sawyer--Chris "Countrywide" Dodd?

Buzz in CT today is that we are about to see the biggest whitewash job since Tom Sawyer had at the fence in 19th century Missouri

Remember out old friend Chris Dodd.  The rumor is that he will stop this clock running by doing the classic public relations approach of someone trying not to relate to the public. Which of late, isn;t all that fond of the Senator for Life.

Yes, late tomorrow afternoon, on a Friday before a holiday weekend, in the dead of winter and right when the Obama inaugural is going to dominate the media, we may actually be treated to some documentary evidence of how the Senator got his sweetheart mortgages from Angelo Mozilo's Countrywide Financial. 

Now why, besides the timing intended to blunt public response, do I think this is going to be a whitewash worthy of  Mark Twain?  Well, Senator Dodd has been spending heavily on criminal lawyers of late.   Well over $180,000 of legal fees ought to generate a very well scrubbed document, I would say.

But Bryan DeAngelis, the senator’s press secretary, confirmed Tuesday night that the firm is also offering Dodd “ethics advice” – a term that includes representing the senator in the Countrywide matter. No word on how much of that total bill is for other than electoral matters, or how much that bill is growing. 

In passing, State Republican Chairman Chris Healy notices that Dodd is using the same law firm that sued the government over Gitmo.  Well, there are all types of clients I suppose. I hope the detainees aren't embarrassed they hired the same lawyers Dodd uses.

Apart from his funky loans from Mozilo on his stateside properties, maybe we will be treated to some light on how Dodd financed his third home in Ireland. 

In surveying the ordinary course of political business, I see our Senators approved sending away the second installment of $350 billion of TARP funds, after of of course, the immeidate crisis has passed and the first installment embarassed its sponsors.

Then again, Countrywide's new owners, Bank of America, need $20 billion of additional bailout loans No conflict of interest, here...naw?

Perhaps the reason Countrywide/BOA need the money is they have thoroughly botched the loan modification business. Check out this shocking story from a NH lawsuit.

  In marketing, advertising and testimony before Congress, Countrywide Home Loans has said repeatedly that it is working hard to modify the mortgages of financially strapped borrowers caught up in the subprime meltdown. But in a New Hampshire court, attorneys for the lending giant are singing a different tune, describing such assurances as “mere commercial puffery.”

Gary and Jessica Raymond are the plaintiffs in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. The Raymonds say they lost the home of their dreams in Canterbury, N.H., after Countrywide strung them along for eight months in the belief their loans could be modified. They say the company then flatly rejected their efforts to negotiate an interest-rate cut.

“The one thing we wanted was to save the house,” Jessica Raymond, 30, told msnbc.com. “We never imagined … that we’d be sitting here in a lawsuit and talking to a reporter about it.”

Maybe tomorrow afternoon Dodd will explain why he decided new legislation to control Countrywide wasn't necessary back in 2007. Maybe that's because unlike the Raymonds, he was a "Friend of Angelo"

I'm betting against the explanations. My money is on white paint.