Dodd was cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter of his “VIP” mortgage with Countywide, though the ethics committee did scold him for not avoiding the appearance of impropriety.
This will likely not be the end of the Countrywide story for Dodd, as I’m sure his opponents will continue to bring it up. Now, however, he has a powerful response to his critics. Definitely a good thing for the embattled senator.
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This development makes it more likely Dodd will stay in the race, which pleases us in the GOP. It is not about being cleared by friendly committees — it is about being cleared in the court of public opinion, and that will not be nearly as easy.
OHH the Senate ethics committee clears him!! That clears everything up!! /s
From an e-mail from CTGOP Chairman Chris Healy:
This whole issue is a side show.
When will we get the truth about the unholy connection between ACORN and the Democrat party, especially with Dodd. Remember, it was Dodd’s unbelievable language that held up the first TARP debacle, when he tried to get 20% of the failed assets in the Housing Market and funnel that money to groups like ACORN.
http://volokh.com/posts/1222499614.shtml
Well I guess federal prosecutors should now close their investigation. Glad to hear Dodd did nothing wrong or improper. Keep up the good work, Chris.
That’s great news. It’s now time for all Democrats to get behind Chris Dodd and support him. Go Chris!
I certainly hope that we get full loan information from each of Senator Dodd’s opponents in the next race. Because I’m sure guys like Foley don’t ever get any kind of preferential treatment from financial institutions.
In fact, I think we need to require that all loan information from all candidates in all races should be made public and scrutinized for possible improprieties and special treatment.
The Senate Ethics Committee, according to its website, is composed of three Democrats and three Republicans. There is no evidence that the Republicans on the committee objected to the finding that Senator Dodd did nothing wrong. There is no dissenting letter from those Republicans. So the suggestion that this came from a biased, or “friendly committee”, simply isn’t supported by the facts.
Foley is a financial institution.
Six Firefighters, Masons, Lions, etc. would probably tend to protect one another as well, which would constitute a “friendly committee”.
I still don’t understand why Dodd just didn’t release the mortgage documents.
Except for listing both his D.C. townhouse and East Haddam home as primary residences (not illegal btw), I don’t know what there was that was so bad. I never saw much a scandal in the mortgages, but the GOP and the Hartford Courant sure turned it into one.
The Senate Ethics Committee is chasing Tom Coburn for doing pro-bono work as an Ob-Gyn for women in need.
pro-bono
They claim that Senate ethics prohibit outside work. Though there’s no issue when spouses of Senators get those six-figure directorships.
Coburn’s situation alone should discredit them as a committee worth anything.
The ethics committee letter to Dodd represents their conclusions drawn from testimony the committee took – reams of it.
Now that it’s all over and Dodd has been vindicated, there is no reason why that testimony should not be made public. Dodd should be the first to insist it be released.
At that point everyone can draw their own conclusions.
Dear Thomas:
The Senate is a club. Just because your peer is in the other party doesn’t mean they are necessarily your true adversary. They sort of get along to go along. So the lack of GOP objections doesn’t make the committee’s decision any less dubious. To put it another way, they are NOT a grand jury.
Foley is our( the democrats) best organizer, so I am anxious to see what he says about Dodd being cleared.
Today I received a mailer from some entity called “Rid U.S. of Dodd,” with the screaming banner “Who does the ultra-liberal Senator Chuck Dodd work for?”
If they are going to trash the geezer, you would think they could at least get his name right.
That’s like some sort of hybrid between Chris Dodd and Chuck Todd. Scary.