Dodd and the Perks of Being a VIP

Here’s Housingwire:

There are a ton of old jokes that abound on Capitol Hill around what’s known as the “ostrich defense,” and this is teeing up one for the record books. Senator gets a great mortgage, and is told he’s in a VIP program — but doesn’t think for a minute that being a VIP got him special treatment.

Dodd would apparently have us believe, using that sort of logic, that any Las Vegas high-roller making a casino’s VIP list has no idea they’re getting extra perks, relative to the average Joes that aren’t tossing away $50,000 per visit. Or that a frequent flier with platinum status — read: VIP — has no idea that their access to exclusive travel clubs and seat upgrades isn’t something that’s offered to everyone else. In short, we’d have to be dumb enough to believe that being a VIP doesn’t really mean being a VIP.

Housingwire says Dodd’s vice presidential hopes are gone, and wonders whether this will sink his mortgage rescue plan as well. There are so many other difficulties surrounding passage of a bailout that it’s hard to tell whether Dodd’s personal troubles will make much of a difference. But it is clear that Dodd isn’t going to easily talk his way out of this one, whether he’s a VIP or not.