About that Mortgage, Senator . . .
By The Editorial Board
Call it the curse of the Friends of Angelo.
Senators are lining up like lemmings to avoid it. They are suddenly volunteering disclosure of their personal mortgage loan terms to avoid being tainted by the V.I.P. mortgage scandal that has descended on Congress.
The "Angelo" of Friends of Angelo fame is, of course, Angelo Mozilo, the chief executive of Countrywide Financial.
It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide — which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess — extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.
The disclosure of the V.I.P. arrangments by the political website Politico.com left constituents angry and suspicious — particularly because the revelations came just as Congress was rousing itself to do something about the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
It would be nice to think that members of Congress did not go into the process with any undue friendships with the mortgage companies.
The Senate ethics committee, normally known for profound silence in the face of members' scandals, has proposed having more stringent disclosure rules as a part of the chamber's standing regulations. Currently, home mortgages are exempt from loan disclosure rules. (Why? we'd like to know. Is there something about graft given in the form of a home mortgage that is less corrupting than other forms of graft?)
In the bright klieg lights of the scandal, the ethics panel recommended closing that loophole. Unanimously. Quickly.
A driving force in all of this has been Politico's ongoing campaign to force the Senators to disclose their lenders and information about their loans.
It took some prodding and public shaming, but Politico recently reported that 99 Senators — and then, the last holdout — had come clean.
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