Countrywide
Posted at 8:26pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Complaint Filed Over Obama’s Sweetheart Mortgage Deal
Obama's mortgage may have violated the law and Senate ethics rules
By California Yankee
The Hill reports complaints were filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Senate Ethics Committee against the Democrats' presidential candidate over Obama's Countrywide-like sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Northern Trust:
Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed the the complaints after The Washington Post reported that Obama received a discount on a mortgage for a Chicago home valued at $1.65 million:
The complaints said the Illinois senator received a loan at the interest rate of 5.625 percent, which Judicial Watch says is lower than the standard rate of between 5.93 and 6 percent indicated by surveys.
The complaint asks the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether the favorable rates constitute a prohibited “gift” under Senate rules.
“It appears that due to his position as a U.S. senator, Barack Obama received improper special treatment from Northern Trust resulting in an illicit ‘gift’ which has a value of almost $125,000 in interest savings,” wrote Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton in a letter to the Ethics Committee.
The complaint also notes that Northern Trust employees have given $71,000 in donations to Obama’s campaigns.
As noted in the complaints, Northern Trust has supported Barack Obama's political campaigns for elected office since 1990. In addition to the $71,000 Northern Trust employees have donated to Obama, the Northern Trust political action committee gave $1,250 to Senator Obama's 2004 campaign for the United States Senate.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Countrywide | Ethics | mortgage — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:54pm on Jun. 27, 2008 It's a pity that this didn't make the actual New York Times editorial page...
...but baby steps, I guess.
By Moe Lane
The below is an excerpt from The Board (via Glenn Reynolds), which looks like it's a blog where the NYT's editorial staff can sound off with relative impunity. It's... not too bad, actually. Pretty strongly liberal, but at least this one has decent spelling - and they're willing to say the occasional nice thing about a Republican.
And, shockingly, no Name! That! Party!:
About that Mortgage, Senator . . .
By The Editorial BoardCall it the curse of the Friends of Angelo.
Senators are lining up like lemmings to avoid it. They are suddenly volunteering disclosure of their personal mortgage loan terms to avoid being tainted by the V.I.P. mortgage scandal that has descended on Congress.
[snip]
It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide — which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess — extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.
Read the whole thing: it's a darn sight more independent-minded than the actual newspaper it's ostensibly attached to, not to mention more interesting. And you get the feeling that whoever wrote this post is perhaps not entirely distraught that the housing bill is being held up right now...
Posted in Chris Dodd | Countrywide | Kent Conrad | Miscellanea | new york times — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »
