Serendipitous Dem Friends of Angelo

Barack Obama made this a campaign issue, so let's follow through, hmm Barack. Apparently there is a loophole you can drive a truck through in Senate disclosure requirements. Hmm, according to The Politico, the last time Congress visited these rules home purchases did not seem to be an opportunity for undue influence. Well, that has certainly changed, hasn't it Ba-rezko-rezko-rezko-rack o-bama.

Dick Armey, WSJ:

Campaigning in Lancaster, Pa., on March 31, Sen. Barack Obama blamed Countrywide's CEO for "infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis." Yet Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Mr. Dodd have crafted a bill to provide $300 billion in new taxpayer loan guarantees to Countrywide and others. The bill will allow troubled financial institutions to foist the riskiest mortgages in their portfolios onto the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) -- ultimately putting the American taxpayer on the hook for their bad bets.

The bill also rewards Barack Obama's radical political ally, Acorn, which has been involved in vote fraud by the way, giving them dibs on monies for housing, an invitation to corruption.

Front page Fargo Forum today, above the fold in the print edition, "Panel reviews Conrad loans: Senator says he talked to CEO by "serendipity". After all, any one calls a CEO when they want a loan, right?

Count the folks in Fargo as skeptical. This in a place that is concerned about drivers being blinded by new digital billboards downtown, the other front page story. The Forum/AP:

WASHINGTON – The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into special loans to Sen. Kent Conrad, who said Tuesday he happened to talk to an executive of Countrywide Financial Corp. “by serendipity” and not because he wanted a preferential treatment.

The Ethics Committee is looking into charges by a non-government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, that the special loans to Conrad, D-N.D., the Senate Budget Committee chairman, and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the Senate Banking Committee chairman, violated Senate rules on gifts that forbid knowingly accepting a loan on terms more favorable than those available to the general public.

The revelations that Dodd and Conrad got cut-rate mortgages through a VIP program for friends of Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo have muddled Democrats’ message as they push to complete a massive foreclosure rescue package before Congress breaks for a weeklong July 4 recess.

Conrad has acknowledged that he spoke to Mozilo by telephone when he was looking for a mortgage to purchase a vacation home in Bethany Beach, Del.

He said Tuesday that he hadn’t called Mozilo himself, but happened to talk to him because the Countrywide executive had been visiting his friend Jim Johnson when Conrad phoned looking for advice on home loans.

Johnson, the former Fannie Mae CEO, resigned from Barack Obama’s campaign last week after it was revealed that he, too, got a special deal on a Countrywide mortgage.

“I had no reason to believe, and I had no expectation, that I’d have any sweetheart deal,” Conrad said.

Riiiight.

P.S. I see Mick and I are on the same page.

--crossposted at UNCoRRELATED