IN THE HARTFORD COURANT, more on the Chris Dodd mortgage scandal:

As the Democrats moved toward victory at the end of October, a story by NBC’s Lisa Myers set Dodd apart from his triumphant fellow Democrats. Myers reported that federal agents are investigating the notorious “Friends of Angelo” list maintained by subprime mortgage giant Countrywide Financial’s co-founder Angelo Mozilo. Dodd was the most prominent member of that exclusive club.

Since the Dodd story broke in June, the five-term senator has offered contradictory fragments of explanations and intentions. Scheherazade after a six-pack of Red Bull would not have told more desperate tales. Dodd gallops the gamut from calling the allegations of special treatment “outrageous” to pledging repeatedly and specifically to release documents related to the $800,000 in sweetheart deals he got from Countrywide.

Still claiming “there’s nothing there,” Dodd refuses to say whether his Senate campaign committee’s payments of $60,000 last summer to a Washington law firm, which has a history of representing Democratic senators in trouble, were for his defense in the Senate ethics investigation of his dealings with Countrywide.

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