Thumbs down to U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd for his continued obfuscation over the particulars of his alleged special mortgage rate treatment. This needn't be an issue, but if Dodd won't answer questions, people are going to keep asking. He says there was nothing untoward about the mortgage rate he received from Countrywide Financial, a company that was heavily involved in the nationwide mortgage collapse. He feigns indignance each time the issue is raised. But he can make the questions stop easily. All he has to do is release documents on two mortgages from Countrywide, each of which seemingly came in with interest figures below the going rate. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he should have long ago put this issue to rest.
As the editorial points out, there is no good reason for Dodd not to have put this to bed months ago if there is nothing to the story, as he claims. The longer he holds out, the guiltier he looks, and the lower his credibility falls. Of course, if he is guilty, he has nothing to lose by refusing to disclose the loan information. As bad as it is for everyone in the country to think you are a lying, cheating, corrupt politician, I suppose it is worse to document it so there can be no disputing it. But does he think he can drag this out through the election? If he had done it right away, he would have had a good year and a half to let the story die. At this point, he has assured that it will be a major campaign issue.
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit included this in his most recent Chris Dodd update, as well.
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