Will Chris Dodd Bail Out His Buddy at Countrywide Financial?

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has a history of sticking his many necks out for unpopular friends in high places. Joe Lieberman post-McCain defeat comes immediately to mind.

But what about Dodd's numerous friends in the financial services industry? In case you'd missed the headline back in the fall, Dodd was named, along with fellow Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), as a corporate-certified "friend of Angelo"-- Angelo being Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo, lord protector of the subprime mortgage.

Well it seems that the Securities and Exchange Commission is ready to take ol' Angelo to trial, and while the charges aren't as grave as the ones that faced Lieberman, they aren't too pretty, either...

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. boss Angelo R. Mozilo, whose embrace of exotic loans helped fuel the mortgage boom and meltdown, will face Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges unless his lawyers prevail in an eleventh-hour appeal, people familiar with the SEC's investigation said Wednesday...

[Mozilo] would face accusations of insider trading and failing to disclose to shareholders the risks the company was running unless the SEC's five commissioners overturn their investigators' recommendation.

Now Dodd holds considerable sway as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, but it's still not enough to overrule the judiciary process in a fraud case-- at least not so long as the Senator's poll numbers remain in the toilet.

At this point, the best Dodd could hope for is that his dear friend Angelo is convicted and sent to a federal prison in Des Moines, Iowa, where Dodd could visit him from his primary-season vacation home.