It seems that the mortgage troubles of two Democratic Senators – Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad – just won’t go away. (Let’s remember, Dodd was the same one who claimed he had no idea who inserted a clause in the stimulus bill to allow AIG executives to collect huge bonuses, and then later recalled that it was him.) After assuring us that he never received any special, preferential treatment from Countrywide lenders, a different opinion on the subject has emerged from, ummm… Countrywide lenders. And unfortunately for the Senators in question, the information came from sworn testimony given before Congress by the person who handled the loans originally.

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.

and more:

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.

A quick response from our friend Sammy Benoit over at Yid With Lid. (Save the comments about antisemitic smears… he named it, not me.)

Once again, our representatives are proving that they believe there are two rules, one for them and the other for the rest of us. Both of these Senators should be given a new home, this one with metal bars.

Here’s the part I don’t understand. Why keep lying about it? This was a case custom made for the old “rip the bandage off quickly” approach if I’ve ever seen one, and you want to do it as far in advance of your next election as possible to give the public time to forgive and forget. Besides, proving quid pro quo in cases like this is next to impossible. When the allegations first came out, Dodd could have called a Friday afternoon dump presser and just said:

“Countrywide offered me a great rate on these packages and I took it. It never affected the way that I, ummm, you know, voted on anything in the Banking Committee, (*cough cough*) so there you are. Of course, we don’t even want the appearance of impropriety, so I’ll make sure nothing like this comes through in the future.”

Then you walk off the stage without taking questions. Let the MSM have a field day for a week or two, until the next blond woman goes missing, a celebrity dies, some misfit gets caught with his mistress or a popular governor resigns. Then, when the quid pro quo turns out to not be provable, the story dies and you get back to work on your reelection campaign.

As things stand now, Dodd is looking to crash and burn at the polls next fall unless something changes dramatically, and that’s a big seat for the Democrats to give up. When will these people learn that in American politics, the lies and the cover-up are usually far worse of a pill to swallow than the original sin?