Dodd's Act Not Going Over Well

Gov. Rell's budget address this afternoon has taken the spotlight away from Chris Dodd's media stunt on Monday, and there is little doubt that was part of the plan. But there were two editorials today that make some good points about the whole situation.

First, Ed Morrissey has an article in the New York Post (H/T Hot Air). A taste:

Problem is, this doesn't negate any prior influence peddling. It's akin to closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, torn down the fences and set the farm on fire.

The influence-peddling took place when Dodd got the special deal from Countrywide - and the shenanigans that Dodd & Co. allowed Countrywide and other irresponsible subprime lenders to engage in have already burned down the US economy.

Dodd promised last summer that he'd release all of his mortgage documentation to the public. He's now in his seventh month of failing to deliver. This week, Dodd released some of the papers - but only to a select group of reporters, who weren't allowed to make copies.

The long wait suggests that Dodd has something to hide. The incomplete "disclosure" and the refinancing, meanwhile, look more like an attempt to bury evidence than a sudden commitment to clean government.

Also, check out the Waterbury Republican-American:

What Sen. Dodd delivered Monday was not full disclosure, but more of the same: The Dodds never asked for special treatment (nor did they refuse it); had they known they were in Countrywide's VIP program, they would have gone to another lender; at the same time, they knew they were VIPs but thought it was just a courtesy.

"We were highly sought-after customers," Jackie Clegg Dodd said. No kidding. But it never once crossed their minds that the VIP treatment might have had something to do with Sen. Dodd's long, destructive service on the Senate Banking Committee? And if he's really this naive about mortgage matters, why in God's name is he allowed to be the committee's chairman?

The sweetheart mortgages are but a small piece of the big picture. While the lending industry was showering him with millions in campaign donations and giving him special mortgages, Sen. Dodd was opening credit markets to unworthy borrowers so Countrywide and other lenders could make a killing on subprime mortgages for "affordable housing."

Read them both, and make sure your fellow Connecticut voters don't lose sight of these issues in the blur of the budget.