Senator Chris Dodd is currently be investigated by the Senate ethics committee for possible rules violations related to some mortgages he got from Countrywide Mortgages (yea, those guys).

He says he never asked for or was offered any special treatment. The Courant quoted him:

I never sought any special treatment. I never was offered any special treatment.

He was in a VIP program and got a good (but available market rate). Some fees were waved which is where he got into trouble (potentially).

I’m sure he’s technically right. I envision something like this.

1. Under occupation on the application he writes: U.S. Senator. (No request for special treatment, just the facts.)
2. Under Clubs/Organizations/Special Interests he writes: Chairman – U.S Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (and if that’s not a question then it comes up in the employment verification phase) – again, no actual request made.
3. Countrywide reviews the application and decides this would be a bad guy to piss off. No need to offer special treatment, special treatment is a given.

Countrywide wouldn’t have even had to let Dodd know. They just knew they wanted him to like them, hence the VIP status.Now Senators need to get mortgages and they shouldn’t have to pay more than others at their income level. But Senator Dodd had an obligation to make sure his dealing with a company directly impacted by his committee had squeaky clean dealings with him. When I worked for the feds, even as a temp, the conflict of interest policy was drilled into us and it was up to us to know of any conflicts.You’ll never convince me that Chris Dodd didn’t expect special treatment without asking.