Say Anything Blog

Here are the facts of the Kent Conrad/Countrywide Mortgage scandal as we know them so far:

• Conrad claims that he was shopping for a loan and just happened to call his long-time friend, Countrywide Mortgage employee and disgraced former member of the Barack Obama campaign Jim Johnson to ask for advice.  Johnson just happened to be in the same room at the time of that phone call with Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.  Conrad just happened to talk to Mozilo about obtaining a loan and, later, Mozilo just happened to order Countrywide employees to give Conrad two loans.  One loan required Countrywide rules against financing apartment complexes to be waived so that Conrad’s “home” in Bismarck could be financed.  The other loan came with fees waived and an extra-low interest rate which saved Conrad approximately $10,700.  That all this happened is what Conrad calls “serendipity.” It’s what most reasonable people call “shady political wheeling-and-dealing.”
• When the scandal initially broke over the loans Conrad issued a press release denying any wrong doing.  In that press release he said that he had never met Angelo Mozilo and thus could not possibly have asked him for a loan.  Later it came to light that Conrad had talked to Mozilo on the phone about a loan.  This is what most people call a “lie.”

• This story became public just before the Senate financial disclosures from 2007 were due to be made public.  When Conrad filed his disclosure he included a narrative (not part of the official disclosure form) disclosing publicly the Countrywide-financed Bethany Beach vacation home for the first time ever.  In that narrative he claims that it is owned by his wife.  According to local tax records, however, both Conrad and his wife are listed as owners of the property.  This, again, is what most people call a “lie.”
• In addition to saying he had never met Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo in the original press release issued by Conrad after this scandal broke, Conrad also said that he’d never taken any action that would benefit Mozilo’s company as a Senator.  Later it came to light that Senator Christopher Dodd (also the recipient of a loan from Mozilo) asked Conrad to sign off on a $300 billion bail out for the mortgage industry (legislation potentially worth hundreds of millions to Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage company) in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.  Conrad not only signed off on the legislation but he also used an arcane budgeting rule to hide this bailout from public scrutiny.  That Conrad would say that he never did anything as a Senator to help Countrywide is, again, what most people would call a “lie.” If not an outright crime.

Now, given the above facts, what words do you think Conrad’s home state’s largest newspaper would use to describe his involvement in this scandal?  If you said “Sen. Kent Conrad’s problem with what appears to be special treatment in securing mortgage loans is not dishonesty or illegality,” you’d be right!

From the Fargo Forum’s editorial on the Countrywide scandal, something they apparently held off commenting on until they could publish an op/ed from Conrad himself right next to it.  You should read the whole thing for yourself, but here are a couple of excerpts:

Sen. Kent Conrad’s problem with what appears to be special treatment in securing mortgage loans is not dishonesty or illegality. It goes to political sensitivity and perceptions. By any reasonable definition, the North Dakota Democrat received a good deal on mortgages after he talked to CEO Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial Corp. The senator said he was not seeking preferential treatment and it was “serendipity” that he received it. (See the senator’s comments on today’s Forum Commentary page.)

Got that?  Conrad’s problem isn’t that he took special treatment from the CEO of a major mortgage company, helped push through legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to that company (something neither the Forum has yet to mention in any of its coverage) and then lied about his involvement in it all to the public.  It’s that he’s perceived as having done those things.

Make sense?  Not at all.  Conrad’s problem is, in fact, that he engaged in a dishonest and probably illegal dealings with the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage.  That he is now suffering from the perception of being a dishonest and cooked politician is merely circumstantial.

Now you may think that opening salvo from the Conrad-friendly Forum is the most absurd thing you’ll read in their entire editorial, but just wait until they get around to scolding Republicans for daring to criticize Conrad about all this:

To no one’s surprise, much of the over-the-top reaction from North Dakota Republicans is more partisan boilerplate than thoughtful criticism.

Over-the-top reaction?  Has the NDGOP even had an official reaction to this scandal?  I’m not sure.  I haven’t seen any press releases, and certainly the only source the Forum has quoted in regards to this scandal has been Conrad himself.  So what basis does the Forum editorial board have for this “over the top” accusation?  Certainly we’ve been very critical of Conrad on this blog as well as the coverage of this scandal from the North Dakota media.  And certainly our criticism has irked some of the state’s reporters given the curt and cranky email I’ve been getting from sources working in the state media.  Are we Say Anything bloggers responsible for the “partisan boilerplate” this Forum editorial is so snide about?

That seems rather silly, if it’s true, since nobody who writes here is an official representative of the NDGOP.  Heck, given that myself and others of this blog are routinely as critical of North Dakota Republicans as we are of North Dakota Democrats, I would say that this blog is hardly partisan at all.

Regardless, I think it’s clear that the Fargo Forum (along with most of the rest of the state media which has remained largely silent in all this) has no desire to cover this story in any meaningful and informative way.  If North Dakotans want the real scoop on Conrad and his involvement in this they’d best look elsewhere.