July 5, 2012, Best Congress money can buy
Alrightie then: this from A.P. lists members of Congress and others in power who got discounted loans from Countrywide in exchange for favorable treatment of that entity (and its sugar-mama, Fannie Mae). Naming names of the "VIPs" who took the bribes favorably discounted loans., we see... that the Keating Mozillo Five Six includes:
Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D), both chairmen of key committees; and House members Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), Brooklyn's own Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.); Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), and Tom Campbell (R.-Calif.).
Also in on the Countrywide discounted loan gravy train were .Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah); an unnamed staff member of Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, a member of the Financial Services Committee, and unnamed staff members of the House Financial Services Committee...all of whom also got sweetheart loans. Other Countrywide "VIPs" included former Housing and Urban Development Secretaries Alphonso Jackson and Henry Cisneros [later a Fannie Mae Board member] and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.
As Mel Brooks would say, "It's good to be the king."