Remember the Countrywide Financial scandal awhile back? To refresh your memory, before Countrywide went down the tubes, contributing to the sub-prime financial meltdown last year, it’s CEO, one Angilo Mozilo, was accused of giving special low interest loans to powerful Washington politicians, like Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd (who may very well loose his Senate seat next year due to the scandal) and Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad. Tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions also went to these Senators from Countrywide and Bank of America, which subsequently bought Countrywide.
These powerful Senators had been put into a special category for more favorable loans than the average borrower could get – FOA’s (“Friends of Angilo”). This whole thing reeked of special favors, corruption, you name it, and thus the matter was referred to the Ethics Committee (which is in reality a black hole where things that might be politically embarrassing often drop out of sight for years).
Well, the issue is once again rearing its ugly head. Here’s the story which appeared last week, October 19, 2009, in the Washington Times:
“If you think moderate Democrats are afraid of voting for ‘Obamacare,’ you should see how they react to a potential vote on the Countrywide Financial loan scandal,” James Freeman writes at www.opinionjournal.com.
“The House oversight committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon to mark up several minor pieces of legislation. Days before the meeting, California Republican Darrell Issa notified committee Chairman Edolphus Towns that Mr. Issa would call for a vote to subpoena Countrywide documents from Bank of America, which bought the failed subprime lender last year. Recall that, under the ‘Friends of Angelo’ program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad received sweetheart deals on home mortgages. Mr. Issa wants to uncover the full story on Countrywide’s effort to influence Washington policymakers,” Mr. Freeman said.
“Mr. Towns, a New York Democrat who also received mortgages from the unit that processed the VIP loans but claims he received no favors, has opposed such a subpoena. But can he count on his Democratic colleagues to vote it down? Perhaps Mr. Towns would rather not find out. Mr. Issa showed up for the scheduled 2 p.m. markup on Thursday hoping that a few Democrats would vote his way and allow the investigation to proceed. Then a strange thing happened: As Mr. Issa and the GOP members of the committee sat waiting for the meeting to begin, Democrats huddled in a back room without explanation. Thirty-five minutes later, the committee announced that the meeting had been postponed indefinitely.
“A committee press release later claimed the postponement was ‘due to conflicts’ with a markup occurring at the same time in the financial services committee. But Mr. Issa’s staff videotaped several financial services members leaving the back-room gathering with Mr. Towns at the conclusion of the meeting. If members were there to confab with Chairman Towns, obviously they weren’t at any finance committee markup – suggesting the real ‘conflict’ was between Democrats over whether to keep stonewalling the Countrywide matter.”
One of the Democrats who’s on the Committee and seen scurrying out the back door is none other than, you guessed it, Steve Driehaus. Click here to see the footage of the “Great Escape.”