Dodd Squad

Does tracking all your electronic business come to mind when you think of "things a good government should do?" Well, you can thank Sen. Dodd for it, should it come to pass, according to Freedom Works.

The man appears to be somewhat brazen.

In the position of Chairman of Senate Banking Committee, he takes favors from banks. Notorious banks. Then we learn he has them drafting up their wish lists, which he sponsors as law. Not only do they get a bailout that is likely to cushion them from significant damages resulting from bad business met with bad policy, but government gets a front row seat in the wallets of the largest group of employers (and employees) in the country, small business.

Summarized as "various housing related tax measures," there's a little provision entitled "Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting," which, surely, must somehow be instrumental in "Foreclosure Prevention". It could probably be sketched on the back of a napkin something like this: "Get them to give us their PIN numbers. Get banks to get off their backs." That is, I suppose, the essence of effective government. In the Soviet school.

Soon-to-be-former-Senator Dodd, you did this all for a little "VIP" action? I wouldn't bet on it.

It looks like a supersized quid-pro-quo. Big gov bails out big biz. Big biz agrees to help make big gov bigger. But what on earth does the Senator from the Constitution State gain for his aggressive and creative "lawmaking?" And which of the good state's good people was he representing, so effectively?

Then there's something of an irony about a representative from a State whose residents pay no income tax being the point man in getting the IRS into every Tom, Dick, and Harry's checkbook.

[This was also picked up by this from a blog called The Economic Policy Journal]

the plot still thickens

A mere two posts ago, I was beside myself that Senator Dodd, who is Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, plainly said he had received special treatment from Countrywide Financial and apparently saw nothing even hinting at impropriety therein.

That was enough cause for an investigation into his relationship with the cutting-edge subprime originator, which is directly under the oversight of his committee.

But now, NRO reports that it appears that Countrywide and Bank of America were the actual authors of a proposition for a taxpayer bailout of subprime lenders that the protocol-challenged Senator sponsored!

[You'll have to scroll on the linked page for "NRO Doc Drop: BofA-Scripted Bank Bailout Looks Awfully Similar to Dodd-Drafted Housing Bill"]

Here are the dots for you to connect: Government oversight + special treatment + taxpayer bailout of failing private business.

Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker raises the question of authorship and expounds zealously.

Do we really want banks writing our laws, and allocating our tax dollars to themselves? These guys make the likes of Jon Corzine and Goldman Sachs look like choir boys.

did I mention he's an ass?

Obama said,

"They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?" [see American Thinker's eloquence on the "Preemptive Race Bomb."]

It takes a certain amount of creativity to make one's skin color a theme for a Presidential campaign. But ultimately it's destructive: it distracts from genuine concerns and divides loyalties by sowing baseless mistrust among people.

And what does this man know about racism? He is not descended from American slaves. Raised not on the mean streets of Harlem, but the sunlit, palm-lined boulevards of Hawaii, he loafed in high school, smoked pot with his buddies in college, and on the strength of an apparently above-average intellect, a silver tongue, and not without a boost from racial quotas, negotiated Harvard. A rather privileged life, if you ask me.

Does Mr. Obama have any business telling you that anyone who isn't smitten with him probably isn't because he's black? This is that backhanded creativity at work. What credentials do you present us with, Mr. Obama? What qualities of character, what record of courageous leadership, do you bring to the table? His rhetoric on the issues that matter is nearly silent, drowned out by the clamor of the idea that you should be smitten with him because...because... well, apparently because he's black. Is that enough?

As a political animal, I classify him as decidedly Clintonesque. I happen to think Bill Clinton is real white trash. So much for racism.

There may be plenty of reasons to be afraid of making a[nother] silver-tongued slacker the commander in chief of the United States of America. None of them has to do with the color of his skin. His penchant for making that his defining characteristic, on the other hand, that is something, if not to fear, certainly to mistrust.

Self-respecting people don't respect shameless self-promoters, class-victimizers, or other confidence men. I think Barack Obama is an ass, precisely because he's an ass; not because he's black. I also think that ambitious politicians whose habitual accusations of their opponents are historically associated with violence and social disorder are plainly unfit for leadership and potentially dangerous.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently reminded us, the content of one's character needn't be defined by the color of his skin. If one dared to take a poll of the American people that asked them to select from a number of great Black Americans the one they would like to see become President, it is likely that Mr. Obama's race theme would be handily sunk. Because there are many Black Americans more fit to lead, on the strength of their characters, then Barack Obama is. Americans know this.

And speaking of Dr. King, he also suggested that people could "overcome" an unjust experience. And as a result perhaps be of stronger character, having a more creative, uplifting influence and empathy for the struggles of others. These are marks of a true leader. Black Americans have overcome, and have the sort of character of refined gold that suffering true injustice, like slavery and racism, produces.

But Mr. Obama is not heir to that legacy. He is an heir of privilege. Flogging an imagined injustice doesn't form character. It corrupts it. It's a counterfeit, and it can't be trusted.

is it asking too much?

Is it asking too much of the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee to conduct himself above even the appearance of impropriety?

The Hill reports:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said he and his wife knew Countrywide Inc. was treating them as “VIP” customers when they refinanced mortgages on two homes in 2003, but that it did not cross his mind he was getting a financial perk from the sub-prime lender.

Does he think we're idiots? Aren't big people in high places supposed to know where the lines are, so they can make sure they don't cross them?

...the Chairman-Senator said this:

“As a member of the U.S. Senate over these many years, the idea of asking or seeking any kind of financial preference, whether it’s on home mortgages or anything else, I completely reject. And any offer that ever would be made I would terminate immediately,” he said.

If you don't proposition and you aren't propositioned, but value changes hands, are you still a whore?

That notwithstanding, given the obvious potential for conflict of interest, shouldn't his relationship with Countrywide have been disclosed? Was it? If not, why not?

So many questions. Shouldn't someone seek satisfactory answers? Maybe we should ask for an investigation, so that the Senator's appearance of impropriety can be cleared up, in case it's only that -- an appearance -- or disciplined, if not.

You can go to the Contact Form of the Senate Banking Committee and ask for an investigation. Better yet, as I recently learned in a lecture on lobbying, an original letter is far more effective.

so check this out

I was tossing a frisbee on the beach, and up walks this pitching scout for the Yankees. Next thing I know, he's pushing a contract in front of me and it's to be a starter for 30 mil a year.

Sound amazing? Like, "in your dreams, kid," right?

Right. Just like going from "community organizer" (whatever that is) to Jr. Senator to President of the United States.

It just doesn't happen. To play in the majors, you've got to have Major League stuff.

And the frisbee guy just doesn't have Major League stuff.