Dodd's Mortgage Saga Takes A Strange Turn

john paul jones wrote:

there alot going on in washington d.c
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), head of the Senate Banking Committee, played a major role in the mortgage meltdown that precipitated our current financial crisis. Not only did he take more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other politician, but NBC News reports that Dodd received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide Financial. To this day, Dodd refuses to release the HUD statement for the mortgage, despite promising to do so months ago.
House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) also played a significant role in the mortgage meltdown. Not only did he take numerous contributions from those affiliated with the GSEs
$800,000: the amount of "sweetheart" mortgages Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) received from Countrywide Financial, the details for which he has refused to release details despite months of promises to do so. Countrywide was once the nation's largest mortgage lender and linked to Government-Sponsored Entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their meltdown precipitated the current financial crisis. Just days ago in Pennsylvania, Countrywide was forced to pay $150,000,000 in mortgage assistance following "a state investigation that concluded that Countrywide relaxed its underwriting standards to sell risky loans to consumers who did not understand them and could not afford them."
$12,000,000: the amount of money provided to community bank OneUnited despite the fact that it did not qualify for funds, and was "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses." It turns out that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), a key contributor to the Fannie Mae meltdown, just happens to be married to one of the bank's ex-directors.
$3,700,000,000:($3.7 billion) not to be outdone, this is the estimated value of various defense contracts awarded to a company controlled by the husband of Rep. Diane Feinstein (D-CA). Despite an obvious conflict-of-interest as "a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms ."
A Democratic Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel (D-NY), who is currently the subject of four separate ethics investigations. Rangel is alleged to have: violated rent-control laws; preserved a tax break for an oil company in exchange for a $1 million contribution; failed to pay taxes on $75,000 in unreported income; and solicited donations on his office letterhead.
John "Porky" Murtha (D-PA), the famed chair of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee; a charity founded by a longtime Murtha aide has become a "funnel for money" to his campaigns from defense contractors and lobbyists who directly benefit from his decisions. A Taxpayers for Common Sense spokesman noted, "It's a real tangled web between the congressman, the nonprofit, the defense contractors and the lobbyists." Oh, as an added bonus, Porky's one of the infamous unindicted co-conspirators caught during the Abscam round up
Harry "Land Deal" Reid (D-NV), the Senate Democratic Leader who collected a $1.1 million windfall profit on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't owned the property for at least three years. Reid also did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company. The AP learned of the land deal from a former Reid aide concerned that the deal had been "hidden from Congress."
this is the tip of the ice berge

Google wrote:

Amazing stuff that Google. I googled Jacakie Clegg Dodd and it appears she is on the Board of several companies, top most being Blockbuster. If what I read is accurate, she appears to have been paid almost $200k in monies/fees in 2007 along with an additional $300k in stock awards. I see nothing regarding her disposition of those stocks.
That said, it also appears that she is a consultant with no public statement of earnings, but I'll presume something flows in from her 'consulting'.
One of my biggest beefs with our elected officials is the increasing role of the revolving door between government office (or appointment in the case of Ms. Clegg at the ExIm Bank) and then private sector, where they are paid regal sums of money.
I would posit that many of these people, while bright and hard working, are not necessarily any brighter than many of us, but they are extremely well connected and able to reap the benefits of their connections.
This is what both infuriates me and saddens, that our system of governance is a vehicle for a small circle of what becomes an elite, to self aggrandize.
Sad... so, Chris Dodd, don't represent yourself as anything but that which you are... a self-aggrandizing individual pushing your personal agenda for both yourself and your wife.