Friends of Angelo

Here is another example of your government officials enriching themselves at your expense:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SENATORS_MORTGAGES?SITE=OHWIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Here are some of the details:

• Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.
  Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.
• 
  Robert Feinberg, who worked in Countrywide's VIP section, told congressional investigators last month that the two senators were made aware that "who you know is basically how you're coming in here."
• Both senators were VIP borrowers in the program known as "friends of Angelo." Angelo Mozilo was chief executive of Countrywide, which played a big part in the foreclosure crisis triggered by defaults on subprime loans. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company was bought last July by Bank of America Corp. for about $2.5 billion.
• Countrywide VIPs, Feinberg told the committees, received discounts on rates, fees and points. Dodd received a break when Countrywide counted both his Connecticut and Washington homes as primary owner-occupied residences - a fiction, according to Feinberg. Conrad received a type of commercial loan that he was told Countrywide didn't offer.
• 
  "The simple fact that Angelo Mozilo and other high-ranking executives at Countrywide were personally making sure Mr. Feinberg handled their loans right, is proof in itself that the senators knew they were getting sweetheart deals," said Feinberg's principal attorney, Anthony Salerno.

Senator Christopher Dodd is a US Senator from Connecticut and the Chairmen of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Kent Conrad is a US Senator from North Dakota and is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance.

We must convince voters in Connecticut and North Dakota that Dodd and Conrad must be defeated in the next election cycle.

THROW THE BUMS OUT!