A few questions for Sen. Dodd
By Bill Allison Mar 16 2009 2:49 p.m. 11 commentsThis weekend, the august Sunday Times reported on Sen. Christopher Dodd's Irish "cottage":
John Moore, an Irish business partner of Downe's, also lobbied Galway county council to approve a planning application by Dodd to extend and renovate the property soon after it was bought in 1994.Moore said: I didn't write to the council on behalf of Edward Downe. I was involved with Galway Chamber of Commerce at the time and had got to know Senator Dodd. I asked the council to look favourably on his planning application because I thought he might be able to help attract US businesses to Galway.
Who paid for the renovations? How much did they cost? Did Dodd and his partner who bought two-thirds of the "cottage," William "Bucky" Kessinger, split them? Oddly, the renovation costs aren't mentioned in the lengthy examination of the Irish deal that ran in the Hartford Courant.
In that same Courant article, Dodd says of his partner in the purchase:
The purchase price for the three-bedroom cottage was $160,000, records show. Dodd said that he contributed $12,000 toward the down payment and that he owned one-third of the cottage, while Kessinger owned two-thirds. Dodd said he brought Kessinger on board in part because, financially, "it would have been tight" to purchase it solo. But he said he did not remember why he and Kessinger did not split the purchase fifty-fifty.Dodd said Kessinger had visited Ireland several times and had long believed that owning property in the country would be a good investment. "We thought that we would use it occasionally, let family and friends use it and then rent it out," Dodd said.
Did Kessinger use the cottage occasionally, or let his family and friends use it?
Hat tip to InstaPundit, twice, for the links.
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Or, maybe, did he rent it out, and not report the rental income? Just askin'
I've assumed that Downe was the third partner, and silent, since by then he was carrying baggage and the relationship had the potential to embarrass had the records shown him to be Dodd's partner. However, that he was an executing witness to the transaction blows his cover.
Great.Exciting. Boy, do we all feel good now.Excuse me but, where were the Hartford Courant and Times fifteen years ago? Ten years ago? Five years ago? Who cares? Senator Dodd has done his damage. It will be long lasting, if not permanent. When he leaves the senate, whether over this little offshore shack or because he just doesn't run again (not likely, these guys are shameless and entitled) he will have had a negative impact upon this country that far exceeds anything positive he's ever done. The same goes for Barney Frank, Kent Conrad, Charlie Rangel, and on, and on, and on, and on.Senate ethics committe. House ethics committee. Please. The whole lot of them have made us a laughing stock and are a national embarassment.
So much has been written about this man and his questionable practices, yet no one in Washington seems to care. They have no stomach for policing their own, only the bankers.
I'd like to see someone in Conn. identify close Dodd family members, e.g., sons, brothers-in-law, etc., and then do a deed search. Conn. & Ireland, on them. My view is that Dodd is being so cagey with information because he's covering someone else. Hey, it isn't dishonest if you are an arrogant politician!
Is anybody in the MSM interested in this story?Can you imagine if this were about Cheney? It'd be national news 24/7.Man...when big media is in the tank...they are all the way in.
First of all, I've seen photos. That ain't no "cottage". It's a seaside chalet on the Irish Riviera. And it's worth considerably more than the $250K Dodd reported.Secondly, I don't think we should be blaming Dodd for this rather creative way of buying a home -- after all, Obama bought his house in exactly the same way. Instead, we should ask the government to extend this program to the rest of us. When you want a house, you find a criminal who wants something from the government. Then the criminal buys your house for you. Easy! Housing crisis solved! Now, how many more Kessengers, Downes, and Rezkos are there?
We thought that we would use it occasionally, let family and friends use it and then rent it out, Dodd said.If the cottage was rented out, does Dodd have issues similar to Rangel? Who declared the income and did (or did not) pay taxes on it?
I don't think Dodd has similar issues--if you check his financial disclosure forms, he does list rental income from the cottage. Dodd's disclosure forms can be accessed here.
Since Dodd is helping us spend trillions of dollars, perhaps asking him a question about policy might be just a bit more relevant.However, if those are the questions you want to go with, how about taking things to the next step and trying to find someone to go out and ask him those questions on video?For inspiration, see this: washingtonstakeout.blip.tvQuestions here aren't going to do any good. Complaining about the MSM isn't going to do any good. You have to go out and do things yourself.
I'm not sure I understand what the big deal is. Are we supposed to be surprised that politicians are liars? Thieves? What??? If we all decided to vote in a Constitutional Amendment that required IRS audits for politicians every 3 years would that help? If we required government to issue the same IRS 1099 for their disbursements that we have to cop/issue when we do business would that help? HONK if your paying my mortgage!