WASHINGTON  One day in 2002, at a time when the sub-prime loan debacle and the collapse of the housing market were not even clouds on the economic horizon, Angelo Mozilo, head of Countrywide Financial Corp., unexpectedly ended up on the telephone with a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Kent Conrad of North Dakota.The senator had called a friend for advice on lining up $1.16 million to buy a place on the Atlantic coast. Mozilo happened at the time to be with Conrad’s friend, who put the senator on the phone with Mozilo, Conrad recalled.
The Finance Committee deals with tax policy and other matters affecting the financial services industry. And Mozilo was in a perfect position to help the senator: Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage company, whose lending practices are the subject of a government investigation, had a VIP program whose beneficiaries included politicians whose goodwill the firm wanted to court.
Conrad, now chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, says he knew nothing about the program, which reportedly was known inside the Calabasas-based company as “Friends of Angelo.” [...]
Conrad got a Countrywide loan on his beach house after talking to Mozilo. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut got two loans. California Sen. Barbara Boxer also borrowed from Countrywide on two occasions.
This article runs in the LA Times business section, never identifies which party Conrad, Boxer or Pelosi belong to and only identifies Dodd as a Democrat in passing after twenty odd paragraphs.
Friends like these … indeed.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/17 @ 8:12 am #
They forgotted the word “Democrat.” Weird.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/17 @ 8:18 am #
That’s weird too. If I called up a company I wanted help from and they transferred me to the top dog in charge I would think it was pretty special treatment. I think I would anyway. It’s never actually happened.
Comment by Roboc on 6/17 @ 8:30 am #
When no party affiliation is identified, it’s a democrat.
Comment by McGehee on 6/17 @ 8:32 am #
…in an article casting a politician in a bad light
Fixed that for you.
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/17 @ 8:38 am #
A Preview of Mario Puzo’s new novel, Godfather IV – the Loansharkers
Don Mozilo: Why didn’t you come to me first?
Sen. Bonasera(D-NY): What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do.
Don Mozilo: What is that?
[Bonasera gets up and whispers in the Don's ear]
Don Mozilo: That I cannot do.
Sen. Bonasera (D-NY): I’ll give you anything you ask.
Don Mozilo: We’ve known each other for many years but this is the first time you’ve ever come to me for counsel or for help. I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is Godmother to your only child. But, let’s be frank here. You never wanted my friendship and you were afraid to be in my debt.
Sen. Bonasera (D-NY): I didn’t want to get into an Adjustable Rate Mortgage.
Don Mozilo: I understand. You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living, the police protected you and there were courts of law and you didn’t need a friend like me. But, now you come to me and you say “Don Mozilo, give me a loan.” But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my home and ask me for a Fixed Rate Loan below market rate. What have I ever done to make you to treat me so disrespectfully. If you had come to me in friendship then you’d be closing on a new home that costs far more than you can rightly afford this very day.
Sen. Bonasera (D-NY): Be my friend… Godfather.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/17 @ 8:55 am #
Hmmmm.
Chris Dodd?
Ted Kennedy’s buttboy Chris Dodd?
What a surprise! Who’d of ever thunk that a turd would smell like shit?
Comment by The Apologist on 6/17 @ 8:55 am #
“My memory is that I called Jim…â€Â
Jim, being Jim Johnson former head of Fanny Mae and former head of O!’s VP vetting team, who just happened to be standing next to Angelo and handed him the phone, who just happened to give the Senator a really sweet deal on a mortgage which, of course, the Senator had no idea he was getting.
You gotta wonder if the journo doing this interview didn’t burst out laughing at this point. I would have.
Pingback by Guess the party on 6/17 @ 9:11 am #
[...] LA Times article on the emerging Countrywide scandal fails to mention that 100% of the involved politicians are [...]
Comment by Sdferr on 6/17 @ 10:15 am #
A tavern owner in DC once confided to me that Chris Dodd owed bartabs all over town, but that most of the bar-owners ended up writing them off since Dodd looked at the bartabs as ‘comps’, all this sotto voce while Dodd was standing eight feet away from us. If you wondered, it is possible to snarl sotto voce.
Comment by kelly on 6/17 @ 10:39 am #
“You gotta wonder if the
journostrung-out crack whore doing this interview didn’t burst out laughing at this point. I would have.”There. I feel better.
Comment by Sean M. on 6/17 @ 10:52 am #
It’s time to play…
“Name! That! Party!”
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 6/17 @ 11:10 am #
Well it’s official. Liberals don’t actually care about corruption, they only care about perceived republican corruption. In other words, they’d like to make it illegal to be republican.
Comment by plainslow on 6/17 @ 11:17 am #
Not being as smart as a Senator, I would of went to my bank or a reputable mortgage comapny to borrow money. I “only” call someone with clout (like Jim), if I wanted something better.
Comment by Karl on 6/17 @ 11:29 am #
You didn’t think Jimbo disappeared from Camp O! that quickly just because of his own issues, did you?
Comment by kelly on 6/17 @ 11:35 am #
Spend more time with his family.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 6/17 @ 11:41 am #
Conrad and Dodd are just smoothing the path for Obama’s explanation of the far below market rate mortgage[s] he received from Northern Trust on BHO Manse. They just liked his smile so much…
Comment by cranky-d on 6/17 @ 12:16 pm #
The senator may have just thought (okay, he most likely thinks) that because he is such an Important Person that he deserved to talk to the head of the lending institution. It’s the same for the rest of them. They are Important People and deserve special treatment. We proles had better just suck it up and learn to live with it.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/17 @ 2:16 pm #
OT, but I am watching that asshole senator from Florida (can’t remember his name but he talks like he’s got a broom up his butt)trying to convince me that drilling our own oil won’t help. It’s a good thing that he is on TV and not standing in front of me.
What kind of idiots elect these morons? It’s just beyond my comprehension that so many people could be so stupid!
Of course, who am I to talk? Chris Dodd is my senator, and no matter how many times I have voted against him, he still wins.
Please. Please. http://www.americansolutions.com
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/17 @ 2:18 pm #
That’s it. Now I remember.
Bill Nelson. One totally brainless human being masquerading as a Senator. He makes my skin crawl.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/17 @ 2:22 pm #
Well, like they said ten years ago — it would be a decade before ANWR would start producing in any volume.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/17 @ 2:23 pm #
Yeah but you say that with the benefit of hindsight.
Comment by kelly on 6/17 @ 2:35 pm #
It’s almost like Democrats want higher gas prices or something.
Nah, couldn’t be. Be too much for the poor and middle class to bear economically and, Gaia knows, Dems are always looking out for them, right? Right?
Everybody’s a rabid environmentalist…when gas is $1.25/gallon and the year is 1990.
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/17 @ 2:57 pm #
Hey, general techie question:
When the comment sections get long, like the “DCMN,W” thread, the whole page shifts farther and farther left until eventually I cant see the left side of the comments or press the “Say It!” button to leave a comment..
Anybody know what causes that? Or more importantly.. anyone know how I can fix it on my end?
Comment by McGehee on 6/17 @ 3:15 pm #
Ouro, I’ve never seen that. What browser and OS are we talking about here?
Comment by kelly on 6/17 @ 3:43 pm #
Does the same thing for me, ouro. I’m on MSFT Explorer.
Comment by nathan on 6/17 @ 3:46 pm #
Ouroboros,
I had the same problem with IE. Switched to Firefox and the problem went away.
Comment by cranky-d on 6/17 @ 3:56 pm #
Apparently IE has html compliance issues. Shocking.
Comment by McGehee on 6/17 @ 3:58 pm #
Kelly, IE? Which version? I’ve never seen that behavior in IE7.
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/17 @ 4:02 pm #
I’ve got IE6 on MS XP..
I’m lucky work doesnt block PW with our nany software..
I dont really want to ask for Firefox and attact their attention =)
Comment by McGehee on 6/17 @ 4:07 pm #
Ouro, would they let you upgrade to IE7?
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/17 @ 4:12 pm #
Thats a maybe.. I’ll go check their corporate upgrade site.. thanks
Comment by thud on 6/17 @ 4:45 pm #
How dare any of us question the behaviour of democratic royalty…quail ye little people before your betters.
Comment by Ric Locke on 6/17 @ 4:46 pm #
Heh. I have to keep IE on my computer because the software I use gets blocked by FireFox, just like the rest of the exploits. Otherwise I’d kill it and the support it uses.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by JD on 6/17 @ 6:49 pm #
Typo. What in the hell is a transtesticled color therapist?
Comment by susan on 6/17 @ 7:27 pm #
This is really annoying me, because I work for Countrywide. The VIP unit exisits so that the general population of employees cannot access the information about a person – employees who get loans through Countrywide go to the same unit. The discount for current customers is 1 point – if you are a Countrywide customer and you call you will get what this guy got. I think Democrats are ethically challenged, but this I really cant see a problem here. It is just because “Countrywide” is a dirty word now or something.
Comment by susan on 6/17 @ 7:29 pm #
I didnt really make much sense there, but really, the VIP program is just a branch with a closed server.
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 6/17 @ 7:54 pm #
- House PA system: “Attention… Ms Pelosi…Would Speaker Pelosi please call the Capital hill lost and found…We found your “culture of corruption” in the Womans Rotunda lounge….Speaker Pelosi, please pick up the floor curtesy phone…”
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/17 @ 9:39 pm #
you can thank O! for that. and also if it’s just a security issue why isn’t that being reported? (not saying reporters are always right, but surely someone has mentioned that)