Local county commissioners in the district of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence passed a resolution requesting that the congressman end his ban on earmarks. The President of Ball State University is also supporting the call for Pence to accept earmarks.

Rep. Darrell Issa is seeking more information on Countrywide's VIP mortgage deals with lawmakers and political figures like Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad. Issa is trying to obtain eight years worth of documents relating to the "Friends of Angelo" program. Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, is currently facing multiple indictments brought by the federal government.

The trial of former Rep. William Jefferson is finally getting under way. In case you forgot, Jefferson was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

And over at Party Time, Nancy Watzman has a post on how a little sunlight can make lawmakers rethink how they fundraise. A common practice in fundraising letters is to list the committee memberships of the lawmaker raising money. For a fundraiser to aid Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democratic lobbyist Heather Podesta went a little over the line in her solicitation, aligning amounts of money with the committees Feinstein sits on. Feinstein wound up cancelling the fundraiser due to the appearance of impropriety.

After coming under fire last year for receiving "V.I.P." rate mortgages from Countrywide Financial on his two homes, Sen. Chris Dodd released a much-anticipated report reviewing the terms of the 2003 mortgages. The report aims to dispell notions that Dodd received preferential treatment from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who ran a V.I.P mortgage program for important political figures.

The two documents released today include a professional review of the terms of the mortgage by the independent company CrossCheck Compliance LLC and a summary highlighting information showing that the rates Dodd received were no different than the commonly offered rates at the time. The key finding in these documents is that mortgage companies were offering rates at or better than the rates that Dodd received for similarly qualified mortgage candidates.

Which begs the question: Was Angelo Mozilo trying to scam political movers and shakers into thinking they were getting special treatment? Or is there more than meets the eye here.

The documents released by the senator are attached below.

Dodd Final Report

Dodd Document Summary