The Absurd Report

Chris Dodd’s house habits have already caused him big trouble with Connecticut voters. His presence as a beneficiary on subprime lender Countrywide Finance’s Friends of Angelo list was a key factor earlier this month when he earned his worst job rating in 15 years of polling by Quinnipiac University.

His case won’t be helped by new revelations in Sunday’s Hartford Courant. Columnist Kevin Rennie revealed the dubious circumstances under which the long-serving senator became sole owner of yet another property, a private house in Ireland, in 2002.

A grand estate on ten acres in Country Galway, the house was purchased for $160,000 in 1994, with Kansas City businessman William Kessinger contributing two-thirds of the purchase price. Eight years later, Mr. Dodd bought out his partner’s interest for about $122,000. Considering that home values in Ireland had quadrupled between 1994 and 2003, Mr. Rennie reckons Mr. Kessinger’s share should have been worth at least $330,000.

Also curious was the witness to the original deed — one Edward Downe Jr., who had pleaded guilty a year earlier to running an insider-trading ring and paid an $11 million fine to the SEC. In 2001, Mr. Dodd successfully lobbied for a pardon for Mr. Downe from President Clinton.

One question is whether Mr. Downe had any continuing connection to the house or role in its financing beyond his witnessing of the sale. Mr. Rennie, a former Republican state legislator and regular columnist for the Courant, notes that the “Irish land registry isn’t open to the public in the manner of the American system. It probably appeared unlikely that anyone would discover the curious appearance of Downe’s nearly illegible signature as the witness to Kessinger’s signing the official transfer document.”

Read more from The Wall Street Journal

Commentary by Jim Mc - In a just world, his dirty deeds as co-leader of the GSE Congressional protection racket alone would have landed this slithering crook in prison.

The Courant’s “Whore of Wall Street” depiction has apparently been purged from the web.

He can’t purge the reality of his sickening long-term exploits though. Below Morris recounts how Dodd used his clout to pass a law that protected big accounting firms from any obligation to conduct themselves in a way that might protect share-holder interests.

In 4/98 he received the Golden Leash Award in recognition of the $910K he received from ’93 through ’97 from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Salmon Bros etc. and the big accounting firms which audited their books.

I believe this is how the Courant first came to recognize him as a vile chiseler with advanced skills that set him apart from run-of-the-mill Democrat slime-balls.

I think their ‘Whore” designation was really unfair to “ladies of the evening”, most of whom have much higher ethical standards than Dodd.

After the Democrats get finished blaming the bankers, maybe they can start to calculate how many lives have been destroyed through the deeds of this worthless heap of excrement.

He is up for e-election in ’10. For the first time he has higher unfavorable, and more people are questioning his honesty than positives. Only 42% say they will or probably will vote for him. 51% say no or probably no. He loses on whether they believe his Countrywide story by 52% to 24%. Now all the GOP needs is a candidate who’s willing to bloody this arrogant slob’s nose. That would not be Chris Shays.

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