Some of us here in the Nutmeg State are following the story of Christopher Dodd (our good Senator) and Countrywide Financial Corp. The Hartford Courant is on it. Yesterday’s story was called Dodd Denies Loans Deal; today’s is Dodd Tops Lender’s Contributions List. As far as I can tell, there are four plausible interpretations of the events. Some of these may be ruled out later, by more information, but I think these are all still available.
First Plausible Scenario: Nothing Happening Here Despite appearances, nothing untoward happened at all. The deal Countrywide gave Senator Dodd on refinancing his two properties was a good one, but his credit was good, and those sorts of deals were being made in 2003. In this interpretation, the VIP list is a bit of marketing meaninglessness. Your Humble Blogger has been told by various financial institutions that I am a particularly valued customer, and have even been given a Platinum Credit Card with a variety of fees waived. It turns out that the card was not made of platinum at all, that they charge me the same fees they charge everyone else, and that I am not actually Very Important to the bank. But it could look fishy.
Second Plausible Scenario: Naive Melody Countrywide kept telling Senator Dodd that he was Very Important to them, and that they were waiving all kinds of fees, and Senator Dodd assumed that it was a bit of marketing meaninglessness, but they thought they were bribing him. But, as Colin McEnroe pointed out in a blog note that he posted after I started writing this one, “the smart, smart thing to do when somebody tells you you’re in a VIP mortgage program is to say: ‘It’s not because I’m a Senator, is it? Because I’m not allowed to accept things like that.’” Of course, Sen. Dodd may have done that, and the loan officer may have said ‘no, of course not’ and then Sen. Dodd may have said ‘did you just wink at me’ and the loan officer said ‘there was something in my eye’ and Sen. Dodd said ‘ok, then.’ Seriously, I don’t find this at all implausible, because, again, lots of people have offered me VIP discounts, and I am not a Senator, and they aren’t really discounts.
Third Plausible Scenario: Texas Two-Step: A Texas politician is said to need the ability to take their money, shake their hands, drink their whiskey, smoke their cigars, and then vote against them on the floor. Well, and in some versions have sexual relations with various members of their families. But let’s keep our eye on the ball: in this version, Sen. Dodd took their quid and gave them bupkes. This is not technically honest (nor is it staying bought, which some people think of as a virtue, although that’s mostly the people with the purchasing power), but the dishonesty is personal. The important thing, after all, is what he does, and he didn’t give them any breaks. It’s worth noting that he voted against bad Bankruptcy Bills both before and after the loans in question, and that he has been very strongly critical of the banking industry, particularly relating to sub-prime loans and unreported and unregulated credit-default swaps. If he also screwed them out of campaign contributions and points on a refi, well, more power to him, right?
Fourth Plausible Scenario: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty Of course, although we know what he did in public, we don’t know what he did behind the scenes, and we don’t know what he didn’t do. Did he sit on some information, back in 2003, that could have been made public about the shaky (not to say dishonest) financial situation of Countrywide? Remember, also, that given his history and his constituency, a public reversal would have been much more than Countrywide was willing to afford, or indeed needed. It’s perfectly plausible that they bought his acquiescence to a deal that was being worked out deep in the fine print. A few lines slipped into a bill could make millions for a financial services company; a Senator on the right subcommittee would have been in the right position to force a vote on those lines or not, to leak them to the press or not, or to hold up the whole package or not. Those of us following the adventures of John McCain, Banker’s Buddy, have been reminded that the best favor a Senator in the minority can do for a lobbyist is sometimes to bring something to a vote and vote no. He votes his conscience, his constituents love him, and the legislation passes. And everybody’s happy, except, you know, the people who live under the bad legislation.
I want to make it clear that I don’t know which of these four actually happened. I like Senator Dodd, and I would like to defend him with a clear heart. At the moment, though, I’m stuck with saying that he could be as innocent as a newborn babe, and could be as guilty as a … what’s the proverbial phrase? As guilty as a Republican?
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.