No political party had clean hands when it came to having a role in this financial crisis. This was especially true when it came to certain powerful Democrats. Democrats loved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Countrywide Financial Corp because these organizations showered Democrats with cash. We know that money talks in Washington.

Countrywide Financial had a "VIP" program that its former CEO Angelo Mozilo liked to use to very generously to reward friends of Countrywide. It was informally called "Friends of Angelo Mozilo". Well, it was disclosed last year that two powerful Democrats may have benefited from this "VIP" program: Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad.

Now, of course, both senators denied that they knew about the program and they denied ever knowing that they got preferential treatment from Countrywide. Unfortunately for the Senators, House Republican investigators have obtained the testimony of Robert Feinberg, who worked in Countrywide's VIP section.

Feinberg has testified that both Senators knew about the VIP treatment. So, what kind of deal did Dodd and Conrad get:

Countrywide VIPs, Feinberg told the committees, received discounts on rates, fees and points. Dodd received a break when Countrywide counted both his Connecticut and Washington homes as primary owner-occupied residences — a fiction, according to Feinberg. Conrad received a type of commercial loan that he was told Countrywide didn't offer.

Both cases, if true, are pretty egregious. I would quote more but I don't want to trigger the AP police.

The moral of this story is that there is too money money in Washington. Unfortunately, politicians have a U.S. Supreme Court decision that says "money is a form of speech" that deserves freedom of speech protection. I never understood this decision: does this mean that if you don't have money to give to politicians your voice is not worthy of protection?

We are so screwed!