Talk:Lobby
From Riski
Drawing back the curtain of deceit ABC News, July 30, 2009
Twenty years after the Fitzgerald inquiry exposed systemic police and political corruption in Queensland Quentin Dempster reviews the preconditions that made the time ripe for exposure and the media's role in drawing back the curtain of deceit. In this three-part series, adapted from a paper presented to the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference, Dempster examines the impact of the Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland and the Wood Royal Commission in New South Wales and makes an impassioned plea for the protection of journalists' sources.
Dodd, Conrad entangled with "Friends of Angelo"
Source: Dodd, Conrad Told Deals Were Sweetened AP, via the New York Times, July 27, 2009
"Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.
Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn't know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.
Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.
Robert Feinberg, who worked in Countrywide's VIP section, told congressional investigators last month that the two senators were made aware that who you know is basically how you're coming in here.
You don't say 'no' to the VIP, Feinberg told Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.
The next day, Feinberg testified before the Senate Ethics Committee, an indication the panel is actively investigating two of the chamber's more powerful members."
