Questions Remain Unanswered About Dodd Mortgages

In yesterday’s Hartford Courant, Kevin Rennie reminds us that we still have not gotten any solid information concerning the mortgage deal that Chris Dodd – Democrat senator from Connecticut – got on his two refinances back in 2003.

Rennie brings up questions from my original post on the subject June 17.

Rennie writes:

Though he said he’d release documents associated with the transactions to the public “at some point,” Dodd continues to refuse to let his constituents see the secret details of two deals that will save him more than $70,000 over the life of the loans.

Some embarrassing devils must live in the details of the records Dodd refuses to release. Dodd got great deals from Countrywide, and checking the rates confirms it. The senior senator didn’t issue an easy challenge. The 2003 loan on his D.C. property, purchased a few years before from his old friend, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, was for $506,000. The restriction under that loan was that repayment terms for secured loans are between 3-30 years, and he was fast approching his 30s. And that’s a “jumbo,” more than the maximum of a conventional loan, and records on those interest rates aren’t widely available.

Curiously, Sen. Dodd has not produced a survey of interest rates available at the time he obtained his mortgages. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee could get the information if he thought it would confirm his loud claim that it’s outrageous to think he got special treatment from Countrywide.

Rennie brings up the fact that the $500k loan was probably a Jumbo – which I missed in my original post.

Ahh yes, and don’t forget…

Senator Christopher Dodd is the main guy in the Senate pushing for the new housing bill which will bail out irresponsible homeowners as well as the mortgage companies like Contrywide. Dodd is the guy who is supposed to help the homeowner and instead, he is helping the same people that gave him special loans and created this housing mess to begin with.

Wonderful.