SUBPRIME SIX UPDATE: Winners, Losers, and "Friends."

Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota still rank high in the loser category. They had to admit that they received special treatment on mortgage loans from Countrywide. They insist they had no idea they got a break—everybody else in the country is saying, "gimme a break." Conrad is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. They are two very powerful senators whose committees have jurisdiction over Countrywide’s business. It turns out they were also "Friends of Angelo," as revealed by Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine. That’s Angelo as in Angelo Mozilo, chairman and CEO of Countrywide.

It’s a pretty seedy story: When Conrad was looking to buy his Delaware beach house in 2002, he called his good friend, former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson, Conde Nast reported. Mozilo happened to be in Johnson’s office and Johnson handed the phone to him. Countrywide financed the beach house and, later, an investment property of Conrad’s. Mozilo instructed a subordinate via email to "(T)ake off 1 point" and in another email wrote, "Make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator." Dodd never spoke directly to Mozilo, but Dodd was aware that his two Countrywide mortgages were in a "VIP section." Dodd says he assumed that was just some kind of "courtesy." The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating.

Incidentally, Johnson is the same guy who was briefly tasked by Obama to vet potential running mates. Johnson stepped aside when it was revealed that he had received preferential loans from Countrywide.

As of this writing, 17 senators still haven’t responded to Politico.com’s request for information on their mortgages.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, here's a followup from Portfolio Magazine.

Plus, Angelo's Ashes: "Countrywide Financial is becoming more of an embarrassment for Bank of America just days before it completes a takeover of the mortgage lender. At the same time, the Senate is pushing ahead with sweeping legislation on housing while facing questions about why some of its members received below-market-rate mortgages from Countrywide."

UPDATE: Bill Allison notes that Bank of America wrote the bailout bill, but observes: "Given that Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., doesn’t know what the interest rates are, it’s probably better that he’s not writing the bills anyway."

JEEZ, I'M WATCHING BILL O'REILLY TALK ABOUT OIL "SPECULATORS" and he's making a fool of himself. He absolutely doesn't understand futures markets.

CANADIAN PUSHBACK on the anti-oil-sands talk:

Pander to voters at peril, U.S. told
Canada's energy sector may look for new markets

Big-city U. S. mayors and presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who joined the parade this week of ill-informed, U. S. anti-oil sands policies, should be careful what they wish for.

While the aim is undoubtedly to pander to the electorate in an election year charged with oil and climate-change debate, what they are stoking is an increasingly angry Canadian energy industry that is seriously looking at non-U. S. markets for its oil.

I thought Obama was going to repair our relations with our allies, not ruin them.

ANOTHER NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE scandal.

A HELLER POLL over at Volokh. Meanwhile, by way of background: Here's a brief piece on the case I wrote a while ago. And here's a lengthier Second Amendment primer.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: What if nobody recognized Robert Mugabe?

Well, he's been stripped of his knighthood, which means that Queen Elizabeth has done more than the U.N. and the "human rights" community.

ZIMBABWE UPDATE: "As Zimbabwe’s neighbors urged it to postpone this week’s presidential runoff, hundreds of beaten, newly homeless Zimbabweans gathered Wednesday outside the South African Embassy here in a desperate bid for help during the electoral crisis."

DISPROPORTIONATE? What Patrick Kennedy actually did.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: How to put the heat on Mugabe.

THINGS THAT DON'T SUCK: One downside of the Nikon D300 is that the files -- especially the RAW files -- are huge. Copying them onto my computer was taking a long time, like half an hour. So I got this Firewire card reader and zip! it was done in a couple of minutes.

HMM: Gallup Daily: Obama, McCain Tied at 45%.

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