House Ethics Committee Says Goodbye to Countrywide Mortgage Probe Without Taking Any Action

The nation's House of Representatives, which has found time to bicker about the "fiscal cliff," apparently has run out of time in its probe of Countrywide Financial.

The House Ethics Committee, in a sleepy, post-Christmas news cycle announcement, said the allegations of corruption, which would have tainted certain high-profile former senators, sacred cows such as Fannie Mae, and selected Countrywide officials, were "outside" the committee's jurisdiction. Further, some issues were beyond the legal time limits structured in House ethics rules, according to thehill.com, which was among the news outlets that reported the story.

Angelo Mozilo

The notion that the committee had no notion of either relevant jurisdiction or of time limits makes little sense. Questions of jurisdiction are issues that inquiries typically resolve, or at least address, as quickly as possible. Time limits are established from day one of an investigation. Countrywide's access to Washington's influential elected officials, appointed bureaucrats, and institutional players, was already well known. The firm's "Friends of Angelo" apparatus, named after then-chairman Angelo Mozilo, arranged sweetheart mortgages for select clients. This was not news; it didn't require much digging.

The House committee's report makes a number of legalese statements that effectively whitewashed its  ingenuous investigation approach. Meanwhile, Angelo Mozilo and nearly all other major players in the housing corruption scandal walk free to this day.

If Mark Zuckerberg's recent 1.05% mortgage from a Silicon Valley-area bank is any indication, the mortgage corruption continues. Hey, who said getting a mortgage should be ruled by ethics?