Many on Senate Ethics Committee Wanted To Sanction Dodd and Conrad For Not Stealing More Faster

From Fox News: “Looks like Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad are off the hook with the Senate Ethics Committee regarding their VIP mortgages from Countrywide Financial. In letters sent to the senators this afternoon and just posted on the Ethics Committee website, the committee said it found no credible evidence that the Countrywide mortgages violated Senate ethics rules. Furthermore, the committee investigation found that the actual mortgage rates offered to Dodd and Conrad under the VIP program "were not the best deals available at Countrywide or in the marketplace at large."

My confidential sources tell me that many members of the Senate Ethics Committee were plainly disgusted by Senator Dodd's and Conrad's and lack of boldness. One Senator was heard to remark, "If every member of the Senate is as penny ante as these clowns it won't be long before the House is stealing more than we are. We have a valued tradition to uphold and these guys settling for a measly few thousand dollars just makes us look cheap. My God! They were dealing with banks. That's where the money is! But it does leave more for the rest of us."
Another member of the committee complained that pikers like Dodd and Conrad just make things more difficult for their more serious colleagues. "If these big companies come in with the idea that a couple of thousand dollars is enough it is just going to take more time and effort to get a decent sized pay off. There was some discussion of throwing them out of the Senate just because they're such cheesy amateurs. But if we don't stand behind them now it might kill health care. And if health care goes down Obama might go down. And that would queer all kinds of lucrative deals," he added.