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Chris Dodd is a crooked politician, and legislators of ilk are an malevolent force that is damaging american democracy. After publicly proclaiming that he woul
by Duff 15y ago
Chris Dodd is a crooked politician, and legislators of ilk are an malevolent force that is damaging american democracy.
After publicly proclaiming that he would not be working as a lobbyist, he became the MPAA's lobbyist for $1.5M. As you can see from the history of SOPA/PIPA, his influence peddling was nearly successful in ramming this legislation through with little or no substantive debate.
Before that, he was the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. While Chairman, he refinanced his homes in Washington, DC and Connecticut with below market rates reserved for "friends" of the Countrywide Mortgage CEO. Note that Countrywide was one of the biggest issuers of fraudulent sub-prime mortgages. He asserted that he had no idea that he was receiving special treatment.
Before that, he bought a vacation house in Ireland with a Bear Sterns executive who was convicted of insider trading. He used his influence with President Clinton to help obtain a pardon for his partner. He subsequently purchased his partner's share at a significant discount.
The fact that behavior like this typifies career politicians does not make the behavior ok. This guy should retire and be thankful that he doesn't live in an era where his actions would have landed him in prison.
- anamax 15y ago> Chris Dodd is a crooked politician, and legislators of ilk are an malevolent force that is damaging american democracy. > After publicly proclaiming that he would not be working as a lobbyist, he became the MPAA's lobbyist for $1.5M. As you can see from the history of SOPA/PIPA, his influence peddling was nearly successful in ramming this legislation through with little or no substantive debate. Yes, but we're discussing whether it's wrong for the MPAA to announce that they're not donating any more money because SOPA wasn't passed. The fact that Dodd was a corrupt politician is irrelevant to that discussion. BTW - Dodd is arguably violating the law by being a lobbyist within two years of leaving office. But, that's off-topic.