Chris Dodd Has Lost His Mind

Dennis Kucinich, maybe, I could understand. Even John Edwards, with his populist streak. But Chris Dodd? I know the chap's presidential campaign is struggling, but has he forgotten that he's chairman of the Senate Banking Committee? It would seem so.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said on Tuesday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson needs to clear up questions about his former employer's role in originating securities related to subprime mortgages.
Dodd, who also is a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said he was concerned about issues raised in a New York Times column on Sunday, December 2, about the activities of Goldman Sachs in reportedly selling collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) while Paulson led the Wall Street firm...
The article, by columnist Ben Stein, said Goldman also was selling the securities short...
Dodd said he was concerned because it appeared that Goldman Sachs was "aggressively pushing subprime mortgages that they knew to be of concern while simultaneously shorting collateralized mortgage obligations."
If so, it could raise suspicions why the Bush administration's waited until recently to begin initiating a plan to help homeowners who took out subprime mortgages and now face losing their homes because their mortgage loans are due to reset at higher rates, driving up their payments.
Dodd said Paulson should "address the concerns" raised by the New York Times article and added a warning: "Failure to do so may be cause for a formal investigation."

(There's similar coverage at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.)

I swear that just reading this makes me feel nauseous. This is worse than a common-or-garden abuse of political power. The Senate is meant to be the more statesmanlike and deliberative of the two houses of Congress. And the Banking Committee, especially at a fraught time like now, is not the place to be launching a distracting, polarizing, and cowardly attack on a Treasury secretary who's finally waking up to the need to do something about the housing crisis.

I am going to try my hardest to keep Ben Stein out of this. He's a newspaper columnist who is good at pushing bloggers' buttons, my own included. Dodd's initiative has nothing to do with Stein, and everything to do with creating a sideshow which can't help but hurt Paulson's attempts to get to grips with the subprime crisis. I sincerely hope that all the other Democrats running for president will quickly and publicly distance themselves from this complete and utter idiocy.

But for no end of detailed explanations why Dodd's thesis is insane, you might as well start here.

(Thanks to Colin Barr and Alea for the heads-up.)

Update: Dealbreaker has the Dodd statement in full:

"I am deeply concerned about the questions raised by Mr. Stein's story in the New York Times yesterday about the activity of Goldman Sachs in aggressively pushing sub-prime mortgages that they knew to be of concern while simultaneously shorting collateralized mortgage obligations. If these facts are indeed true, the Administration's inaction when this crisis began to emerge earlier this year, is increasingly suspect. It is in the best interest of resolving this crisis if Secretary Paulson, who was leading Goldman at the time in question, addresses the concerns raised by Mr. Stein's article. Failure to do so may be cause for a more formal investigation."