Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn) Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Hypocrite Extraordinaire

From Betsy's Page quoting Victor Davis Hanson:

Why are these guys in charge of deciding on the bailout

There is some cognitive dissonance in seeing Chris Dodd chair the hearing on the bailout in the Senate Banking Committee yesterday. As Victor Davis Hanson writes,

Very odd to see a Sen. Chris Dodd, of all people, today defiant and outspoken in his regard for the people:

if only he had returned (never too late) lavish contributions from Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae (as Senate banking chairman, he was their #1 targeted recipient and raked in over $160,000);

if only in the midst of a loan crisis, he had not received below-market-rate VIP loans from the now late great, melted-down Countrywide for whose parochial interests he championed;

if only he had not been instrumental in blocking past proposed firewalls that might have prevented the collapse of the two agencies that were the catalyst for this mess;

if only he had a bit of contrition for his own role in this national mess.

Surely in the interest of transparency and conflict of interest, any Senator, Republican or Democrat, who accepted money from Freddie and Frannie, or any of the imperiled investment houses, should recuse themselves from the present hearings—but then there might not be a quorum.

These are the same Democrats on the Banking Committee who three years ago blocked reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thus allowing the problems to metastasize for three more years. Remember, just a couple of months ago, Dodd was denying that there was any problem with Fannie and Freddie...........................