ObamaFest

By now some agency must have a wire up on Senator Dodd.   He's the Clay Davis of Capitol Hill. 

"Chris Dodd an honest man?  Sheeeeeee-iiiiit"

If the "Friends of Angelo" offense wasn't enough to warrant jail time (it was, btw), the newly revealed "Cottage-gate"  scandal should do the trick.  A quick summary of the facts uncovered by the Hartford Courant:

-In 1994 Dodd buys a third interest in an Irish estate valued at $160k.  William Kessinger bought the other two thirds.  Kessinger's business partner is longtime Dodd buddy Edward Downe Jr.  (In 1986 Dodd purchased a Washington condo with Mr. Downe).
-In 1993, Downe pleads guilty to felony crimes of insider trading and securities fraud.  In 1994 he pays the SEC $11 million in criminal penalties.
-In 2001, Senator Dodd successfully lobbies President Clinton to pardon Mr. Downe before leaving office. 
-In 2002, Mr. Kessinger sells his two thirds of the estate to Mr. Dodd for $127k, even though the price of homes in Ireland quadrupled in the eight years since they bought in - meaning the estate's market value is over $640k!

The Wall Street Journal sums up Cottage-gate thusly:

"Mr. Dodd is busy these days blaming everyone else for the real-estate bubble and financial meltdown. But he owes his constituents and the Senate an honest accounting of his Galway property over the past 15 years. If its value grew with the rest of the area, he needs to explain why Mr. Kessinger handed it over for a song, why that isn't an unreported gift under Senate rules, and what role Mr. Downe might have played as a middleman.

More broadly, Connecticut voters might want to know why their senior Senator has hung around for years with Mr. Downe, the kind of financial scoundrel Mr. Dodd spends so much time denouncing."

The ObamaFest Team loathes a system that allows the Bernie Madoffs and Chris Dodds of the world to walk among us.  Cuff 'em.