that horrible Sylvester Stallone movie Cop Land

That was not a horrible movie! Sylvester Stallone actually did a decent job acting, Harvey Keitel was awesome as the Internal Affairs guy, and Janine Gerofalo (in a serious role) as a cop and Stallone's partner.

The shot at the end, where Stallone gazes wistfully at the NYC skyline from the Jersey side of the river, was the best.

You didn't appreciate any aspect of Copland's slavish devotion to realism? Not even it's lesson that, after a car crashes into a lake, the best way to break a window so that you can save an occupant from drowning is to hit it repeatedly with your ear?

Oren, what Duke Cunningham was selling was worth a yacht. It was outright quid pro quo; give me a yacht and I get you the contract. The "Friends of Mario" club wasn't on that level; Countrywide wasn't buying anything specific, just general goodwill. I do you a favour, next time I appear before you you'll remember what I did for you. That sort of quo isn't worth nearly as many quid.

Let me put in another vote for Cop Land. Stallone had been campaigning for a "serious" role, and got one. He was terrific as an overweight, aging local cop in over his head.

- Alaska Jack

CopLand is pretty good, a bit long though, at least to watch in the theater. I think I remember Debbie Harry being in the movie.

David,

You're not crazy. I had been thinking the same thing. Even when I saw the movie, where cops are running around trying to kill some of their own, I kept thinking "All this for a mortgage? In Jersey? I wouldn't cross the street for a lower interest mortgage in New Jersey."

Even as a conservative who is against graft and corruption, I find the outrage about the mortgage deals that Dodd and others got a bit overblown, based strictly on the dollars involved.

In all societies, those who already have money, power, influence, fame or just plain old celebrity are feted by those who want it too, or who just want to bask in the reflected glow of it. Celebrities and power brokers get meals and rooms comped all the time, discounts on products so the sellers can brag about who bought them, and entire wardrobes are provided free for TV stars for a tiny credit at the end of the show.

I wouldn't doubt that even small community banks have their own "Mario's List", made up of the community leaders. It's likely that these community leaders are better risks anyway, so it's a way to give them a little break over the stated rates that everybody else gets.

At some point the back-scratching becomes outright bribery and influence-peddling, but below that ill-defined, relative point, it's the way societies have always worked. The alpha male gorilla probably gets a little more grooming and attention from the females than the rest of the males get too.

The thing about a bribe in the form of a low-interest mortgage is that the borrower will tend to think of it (assuming the rate is adjustable) as a gift that can later be partially rescinded. And as we all know, the desire to avoid losing something is much more psychologically powerful than the desire to get something more.

I used to know a group of people who worked for a bank, several of whom had gotten mortgages at the employee rate. They all spoke of the mortgage as a powerful disincentive to change jobs, even though they weren't especially well-paid. It's awfully hard to give up a bird in the hand...

What geokstr said. If I was running a bank and found out that a Senator was applying for a mortgage, I would make sure that said Senator had an absolutely perfect mortgage experience. Especially so if he was the Chair of the Senate Banking Committee.

The fault, if any, lies with the fact that Senators have the power to destroy the bank.

If you are the CEO of a major business that spends millions of dollars a year advertising in the local paper, your morning newspaper is delivered by a person who specializes in dealing with VIP customers. He might have only 10 or 20 deliveries to make each morning (depending on how concentrated the VIPs are), but it's definitely in their interest to keep you completely happy.

This is why Consumer Reports buys their products anonymously.

I thought Cop Land was confused. Stallone thought he was there to be a drama actor. Everyone else thought it was the New York version of Ocean's 11 (the good one)

My late father-in-law owned a business in a large Northeastern city whose business was mostly with various local government agencies. He used to say that the number of officials who could be bribed never surprised him, but he was surprised by how cheaply they could be bought.

Agree re Stallone in the movie--the second movie in which he has actually acted, the first one being Rocky.

But I agree with David's assessment of the movie as a whole.