Relationship between Towns and Countrywide Scrutinized

Representative Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from Brooklyn and the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been relentless in his criticisms of the financial services industry, reports The New York Times, but now he himself is under fire because he opposes Republicans’ efforts to subpoena records for Countrywide Financial, a company implicated in the subprime mortgage crisis. Republicans have suggested that Mr. Towns has received loans from Countrywide’s V.I.P. program and refuses the subpoena for personal reasons. A representative of Mr. Towns said this is simply a smear campaign, since Countrywide was already investigated last year regarding its connections to Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad, with both parties coming out clean. He went to his local mortgage guy and got a normal mortgage, the representative said. The guy’s from Brooklyn and doesn’t have much money and wasn’t prominent enough to be considered a V.I.P. Whether it was later transferred through the V.I.P. program, I don’t know. But he didn’t receive any favors. The Dodd-Conrad investigation showed that the V.I.P. program expedites service but issues regular loans at market rates. Republicans plan to continue their investigation, however, to prevent companies from buying influence from government officials.
Watchdog in Congress Now a Target Himself [NY Times]