Quid pro quo
Posted at 10:47am on Jun. 18, 2008 Demand Congress Investigate Senator Chris Dodd
By The Directors
The New York Times reports this morning that Senator Chris Dodd (D-CN) had suspicious dealings with Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lender Senator Dodd is attempting to bailout with taxpayer dollars.
According to Senator Dodd, he knew he was in a "V.I.P. program" at Countrywide Financial, but he denies that this meant he was getting special treatment from Countrywide Financial.
That's like being a member of the United States Senate and thinking you get treated just like everybody else.
Most damning, however, is that Senator Dodd is now trying to bailout Countrywide Financial with billions of taxpayer dollars.
Call your senator at 202-224-3121.
Tell your Senator there must be a full investigation to determine if Senator Dodd is operating in a quid pro quo relationship with Countrywide Financial.
Likewise, the Senate should not consider Senator Dodd's mortgage bailout proposal that benefits Countrywide Financial until we know if Senator Dodd is returning the favor of his very low interest mortgage rate.
Finally, tell your senator that Senator Dodd should step down from chairing the Banking Committee. If he is not smart enough to know being in Countrywide's "V.I.P. Program" gave him special treatment, he is not smart enough to preside over this important committee.
Posted in Chris Dodd | Congress | Connecticut | Countrywide Financial | Mortgage Bailout | Quid pro quo — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 6:37pm on Mar. 13, 2008 Barack Obama: Crook.
I think we've moved past "the appearance of impropriety."
By Leon H Wolf
It appears that Barack Obama, allegedly decent guy and agent of "change" in Washington, requested an earmark in 2006 for $1 million taxpayer dollars for the hospital where his wife works. Said hospital, by the way, gave Michelle Obama a huge raise (nearly $200,000, more than doubling her salary) in 2005 after Barack got elected to the United States Senate. Now, I know that there are lots of ways to talk about transactions like this involving public officials - quid pro quo, etc., but I prefer to call a crook a crook and just say that we're dealing with good, old fashioned, public corruption here.
I am having an especially hard time distinguishing Obama's actions here from those of, say, Duke Cunningham, who is currently in prison. I suppose you might say that Obama injected some more efficiency into the process by eliminating the middle man, but while I'm a big fan of efficient markets, generally speaking, I happen to think that there should not be any sort of market at all for the votes of public officials.
Perhaps these silly notions of ethical propriety are what Obama intends to "change" if he is elected President. If that's the case, I'll take the status quo, thanks. Without the quid.
Posted in 2008 | Culture of Corruption | Obamafiles | official corruption | Quid pro quo — Comments (67)/ Email this page » / Read More »
