Will Chris Dodd Leave Banking? Regulatory reform hangs in the balance

Will Dodd Leave Banking?
Future of reg reform hangs in balance

American Banker | Thursday, August 27, 2009
By Stacy Kaper

WASHINGTON — For Sen. Chris Dodd, the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy not only means losing his closest friend in the Senate, it also creates a dilemma for the Connecticut Democrat's political future and raises fresh questions about the fate of regulatory reform.

After months of standing in to lead the health-care debate on behalf of his colleague, Sen. Dodd must decide whether to stay as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee or assume Kennedy's mantle as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

If Dodd surrenders the banking chair, it is not immediately clear who would succeed him. By virtue of seniority, the position would fall to Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, a community banking advocate and Democratic moderate.

But it's possible Johnson, still suffering the aftereffects of a brain injury two years ago, could step aside in favor of Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island liberal who has been primarily focused on housing issues.

All three lawmakers are liable to take different approaches to regulatory reform — leaving the bill and the future of the banking industry in the balance...cont'd

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/174_165/will_dodd_leave_banking-1001392-1.html

It's a Mad Mad World:



Senate Ethics Panel Clears Dodd, Conrad on Countrywide Loans

By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN and JESSICA HOLZER
WASHINGTON --Two top U.S. Senate Democrats were cleared Friday of any wrongdoing in receiving loans through a special VIP program run by Countrywide Financial Corp., but were told by a Senate ethics panel that they should have exercised better judgment.

The bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Ethics said it found "no credible evidence" that either Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut or Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota knowingly sought out a special loan or treatment because of their standing.

But letters sent Friday from the panel to the two senators said the lawmakers should have questioned why they were being put in the "Friends of Angelo" VIP program at Countrywide Financial, so named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. "Once you became aware that your loans were in fact being handled through a program with the name 'V.I.P.' that should have raised red flags for you," the panel said in the letter to Mr. Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee.

Countrywide is under investigation by the Department of Justice for securities fraud.

..cont'd

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124966517496114909.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

------


August 12, 2009
It's Seriously Like Bizarro World

The news late last week that Senators Dodd and Conrad skated on charges that they violated US Senate ethics rules arising out of their being "Friends of Angelo's" hardly took the country by surprise. A typical comment in The Wall Street Journal article on the matter summed up the rampant cynicism that permeates much of the public.

It's seriously like bizarro world. Honestly, let me get this straight, and with a straight face.

The committee found no "wrong-doing" but thought the loan program called "VIP" SHOULD have clued him in that maybe he was being considered a VIP? Seriously. They think we are complete idiots.

Dude, I swear, don't TOUCH my health care.

A responder to said comment noted dryly: "The way we keep sending the same crooks back, they KNOW we're idiots."

Meanwhile, back at the zoo, the problems of the ethically challenged keep mounting. The same day it was announced that Dodd and Conrad wriggled off the Countrywide hook, CBS News announced that the Mazillo group hug groped more than merely Messrs. Dodd and Conrad. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Adolphus Towns (D-NY) also is under the microscope. I doubt that he's sweating bullets, given the lenient treatment accorded his Senate counterparts, but at least even "fair and balanced" news readers like the terminally cutesy Katie Couric are starting to rake the muck and throw it on more and more of our elected representatives of both parties. As yet another commenter in the journal so aptly put it, "This is a confirmation that Republicans don't have a monopoly on stupid..."

Now, why doesn't that realization make us all feel better?

cont'd

http://www.banklawyersblog.com/3_bank_lawyers/2009/08/its-seriously-like-bizarro-world.html