There's been a lot of questions raised by Senator Chris Dodd's lucrative relationship with Angelo Mozilo of the defunct Countrywide Bank. Friends of Angelo Mozilo got cheap loans with few questions. One hand washed the other, as Dodd and Barney Frank urged bankers to put out as much housing money as they could in the form of subprime loans. Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, with congressional urging, could be relied upon to absorb as much bad debt as they could. It was all done "for Americans across the country" and now the very same Americans are done in by the rot and corruption.
That wasn't Dodd's only caper. A reporter at the Hartford Courant has found Dodd playing fast and loose with Government ethics in the purchase of a house in Galway, Ireland. If the idea of our "civil servants" getting rich on the strength of their connections seems squishy to you, the method of acquisition, in little bits and pieces, stretched over time shows Dodd's conniving reach and obsession for making money while "serving the people." This cries out for investigation and finally the wheels are beginning to move.
Dodd first bought 1/3 of the estate, and then 8 years later bought the other 2/3 at one-tenth its real value. Reporters conjecture it was payback for Dodd's lobbying with Bill Clinton for a pardon of Dodd's long-time buddy, Edward Downes Jr. Downes is a convicted felon, having vioated SEC rules.
There's no end of grabbing for riches when you're in Congress. What is it with top Democrats and real estate deals? Know what? I don't trust many of the leading Democrats, and I doubt the president, with his previous Rezko joint purchase connections, will anything more than talk about integrity in government. Because, when there is none, that's all you can do. Talk.
So when little Johnny comes home from school and asks you why someone would want to go to congress, you can say:
"Well, that's easy, son. People go to the Congress of the United States to get rich, most especially from real estate deals."
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