Now you see ’em … now you don’t – Update

When will Chris Dodd release his mortgage papers. Well he did … like a dog on a leash. Sit, Ubu sit.

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has finally, sort of, kind of, ended 193 days of stonewalling about his sweetheart loans from former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. At least he did if you were a fast reader and were one of the few reporters he invited to his Hartford office yesterday to review — but not copy or take — more than 100 pages of documents related to his 2003 mortgage financings through Countrywide’s “Friends of Angelo” program.

Grrrr, grrrrr, grrrrr … Time to put Ubu back in his kennel. Later folks.

Update: By the way here are the numbers from the Courant. Still lots of questions but what stuns me here is the shear wealth. If this is “public service” … count me in.

They closed in June 2003 on a $506,000 loan to refinance their Washington townhouse, which was appraised at $792,000. They paid no points and $2,286.30 in fees for a 4.25 percent adjustable mortgage.

A month later, they refinanced the mortgage on their East Haddam home for $275,042, which was then worth $500,000.

Dodd said he will use a third party to shop for his new mortgages.

Some final thoughts. I find it amazing that the senior Senator has been one of the harshest critics of the opulence of the financial sector, hammering banks and investment houses for their private jets and lavish offices in the midst of the meltdown, while asking for a “bailout”. Not that in some cases it is not deserved, because it is.

But don’t you find it just a bit ironic not to mention hypocritical that here is a man who was at the helm of the regulatory system during the meltdown while sitting on more than a million dollars in prime real estate himself while living off the largess of the American people. And if the “bailout” is the standard by which we may level criticism, isn’t that exactly what we the people are being asked to do for Congress?