Hillarysworld

I find this in contempt.  America is going to go viral and there is no way we can stop it.

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The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed complaints against Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) alleging that they had received special mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial.

 In two letters posted to the Ethics Committee website, the panel said it found no “substantial credible evidence” that either Dodd or Conrad had violated Senate rules, which forbid senators from receiving special deals not available to the general public. The dismissal is being touted by Democratic aides as a “huge vindication” for Conrad and especially Dodd, who faces a tough reelection in Connecticut next year.

 The Ethics Committee did gently scold the senators, saying they should have “exercised more vigilance in your dealings with Countrywide in order to avoid the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator.”

 Just as importantly, the committee investigation found that the actual mortgage rates offered to Dodd and Conrad under the VIP program "were not the best deals available at Countrywide or in the marketplace at large." So after 18,000 pages of documents and a yearlong investigation, the Ethics Committee is saying these "sweetheart" loans weren't even all that sweet.

 The Ethics Committee’s ruling, signed by all six members of the panel, is especially good news for Dodd, who has seen his approval ratings back home in Connecticut plummet since the news of his two Countrywide mortgages, obtained under a VIP program known as the Friends of Angelo, a reference to former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, was first reported last year by the Portfolio magazine.

 Dodd is expected to hold a press conference in Connecticut later today, but the subject line in his statement said enough: “Ethics Committee Clears Sen. Dodd.”

 “I’ve said all along that I welcomed a close examination of my mortgages, and I’ve also said all along that Jackie and I received the same mortgages that anyone else could have received,” Dodd said. “There was no 'sweetheart' or special deal; the allegations are and have always been false. But I will say this: I understand that my reaction to those false allegations only served to foster cynicism. And that was my fault.”

 With Dodd facing a tough reelection battle next year, Republicans said it may give him a “short-term boost” but will not resolve his low approval ratings back home.

 "Whether it’s his role in approving bonuses for AIG executives, his questionable real estate deal in Ireland or his decision to move to Iowa and run for president while the housing market was collapsing, it’s hard to see this as anything other than one issue down, but many more still unanswered,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

 Conrad, in his own statement, called the ethics ruling “most welcome news.”

 "The Ethics Committee’s exhaustive inquiry confirms what I have said all along: I did not ask for or receive any preferential pricing on my loans. While I should have shown more vigilance in the appearance of these transactions, the committee has concluded I did nothing unethical, and that is the truth,” Conrad said.

 The watchdog group that filed the ethics complaint, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had a fairly cynical reaction to the dismissal.

 “As is its practice, the Senate Ethics Committee has cleared the senators of any wrongdoing despite the fact that the senators participated in a program the committee found ‘offered quicker, more efficient loan processing and some discounts,’” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said. “Apparently, clearing the senators was insufficient penance for the committee for having the audacity to investigate in the first place.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25921.html#ixzz0NWuXIqMe