1/6 Update 8:34 am: CT AG Richard Blumenthal just announced on Squawk Box he WILL be running for Dodd’s seat. Hey, better Blumie than Dodd. Let’s hope it is harder for corpocrats to spin Blumie to being anti consumer after his many years of fighting FOR consumers in CT. And if you are in the GOP check out Rob Simmons also running for the seat. Blumenthal has a press conference scheduled for 230pm today in CT.
12:15am EST: WaPo breaking it…fingers crossed it’s true! Excellent!!
Dodd endorsing Obama after dropping out of the Dem primaries in 08. Laugh all the way to retirement you red faced AIG bonus giving frakker.
Conn. Sen. Chris Dodd expected to announce retirement, sources say Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), a leading Democrat whose political star fell along with the nation’s economy, is expected to announce Wednesday that he has decided against running for reelection this November, according to sources briefed on the decision. Dodd, in his fifth term, chairs the Senate Banking Committee. His retirement would be the second such announcement by a Senate Democrat in 24 hours; North Dakota’s Byron Dorgan said Tuesday that he would not run this fall.
20th Century Fox is making progress with its “X-Men” spinoff, “Deadpool,” and has tapped “Zombieland” scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to pen the screenplay…….There is no timetable on the Marvel property, though Reynolds has a window after wrapping the “Green Lantern” this summer.
Reynolds has been bulking up to play the DC Comics’ hero “Green Lantern,” which starts lensing next month. This means he would already be in superhero shape if the script for “Deadpool” is ready by summer.
Reese and Wernick, who wrote “Zombieland,” will stay true to the mythology of “Deadpool” given that Reynolds is a huge fan and protector of the property.
The tone of “Deadpool,” which features an antihero as opposed to the more traditional heroic comicbook protagonist, is very similar in tone to “Zombieland.”
Reese and Wernick, high school friends who began collaborating in 2001, most recently sold the pitch “Earth vs. Moon” to Universal Pictures. The pair penned a draft of “Venom” for Sony/Marvel….
James Lockhart (Dubyahs head of FHFA) of all people calls for principal reductions on CNBC this morning and Barney Frank D-MA said it will not happen..Through the Looking Glass…
James Lockhart, former head of the Federal Housing Agency, told CNBC Tuesday that he wants more generous mortgage modifications, including principal payment reductions.
…Although the latest Case-Shiller Index indicates the housing market has been improving for the last five months, there could be another spike in foreclosures, said Lockhart. While banks and investors have already marked down mortgages on their books, he said, that benefit has not yet been passed onto homeowners….
…“We still haven’t seen the falloff in foreclosures,” he said. “All the solutions have been on the income-side, and people’s balance sheets are suffering. It’s coming to the point where I think we really have to consider much more aggressive [loan modifications and] at looking at reducing principals.”
Lockhart also expects strategic defaults will start to occur more frequently. “You look at the bankruptcy numbers; the stigma is not there anymore,” he said….
…Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who was an early opponent of Obama in the 2008 presidential race, thinks the move is backdoor way to help banks, and a congressional subcommittee he leads is investigating the Treasury’s decision to cover unlimited losses at the housing finance companies.
“This new authority must be used responsibly and for the benefit of American families,” Kucinich said. It “cannot be used simply to purchase toxic assets at inflated prices, thus transferring the losses to the U. S. taxpayers and acting as a backdoor TARP.”
That’s exactly what Treasury is doing, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington. “This looks like the original TARP,” Baker said, referring to $700 billion financial rescue fund, known officially as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Waxman and Issa also ‘concerned’
…Kucinich is not the only one on Capitol Hill up in arms. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said he doesn’t like the idea of a “blank check” for Fannie and Freddie.
And Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called it “a continuation of the bailout policies that have mortgaged away the future solvency of our country.”…
Moderate in the Middle 