POLITICO: Yap trap: Pols talk, markets dive.

MORE PROBLEMS FOR THE DEMOCRATS FROM CHRIS DODD:

In handling its investigation of Sen. Roland Burris’s (D-Ill.) conflicting testimony regarding his appointment, the Senate Ethics Committee is finding itself in something of a quandary. . . . Ethics committee action resulting in an expulsion vote may be the only way to make the embarrassing fallout of filling President Obama’s Senate seat go away.

But any swift moves by the usually lethargic self-policing panel would be highly unusual and could lead to even more questions about whether the clubby upper chamber is singling Burris out unfairly. Even though members of the Congressional Black Caucus are no longer rushing to his aid, a bold ethics committee move could reignite the racial tensions surrounding Burris’s selection. . . . Meanwhile, it took a year of investigating for the panel to admonish former Sen. Pete Domenici (D-N.M.) for his role in contacting the U.S. attorney in his state about a pending federal grand jury probe into public corruption. The ethics panel has yet announce an investigation into Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) Countrywide mortgage and its favorable loan terms.

While they’re at it, there’s that Irish “cottage,” too.

A PORSCHE 911 Police Car. I think I’d be resistant to any tax increases in this jurisdiction . . . .

TOM MAGUIRE: Feel the anger. “Here is a website dedicated to the 92 percent of Americans who are making their mortgage payments. . . . The real controversy would develop if their call for a national mortgage strike caught fire.”

IN THE MAIL: Taylor Anderson’s Into the Storm. Looks like a naval variation on William Forstchen’s Lost Regiment theme.

DISCUSSING THE FUTURE OF THE W.T.O., at the University of Chicago Law Faculty Blog.

L.A. TIMES: One month in, Barack Obama’s approval slips, disapproval doubles. “In fact, after 30 days the Gallup Poll shows Obama has about the same approval rating as did George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, the man whose eight years in office the Illinois senator so often denounced as destructive during the recent campaign.” Uh oh. Yeah, my own hopes have been largely disappointed.

DETROIT AS THE PRODIGAL SON: Why is the government rewarding failure? ‘Cause failures will pay more to be bailed out than successes will?

VIDEO: Sticking it to FreeCreditReport.com. What, it’s not really free?

CHRIS DODD: A BLEEDING WOUND FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

To borrow a term from the battered auto industry, President Obama’s rollout of his economic recovery plan has been a bust. He has a chance tonight to explain why his plan should be upgraded from Sell to Buy. . . .

Speaking of which, the president ought to tell members of his own party that loose talk doesn’t help a market that sees its own shadow every day and prepares for six more months of recession. On Friday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., mouthed off that the government might have to nationalize some big banks. Such a move would clean out investors, and investors reacted accordingly.

Having the ethically challenged Sen. Dodd – he accepted sweetheart loans from subprime-loan pusher Countrywide Financial – as a key player in the recovery effort is just one problem Mr. Obama faces. The biggest, though, is the perception that he doesn’t have a handle on the problem or a solution.

Yes, they do seem to be flailing. But having Dodd on board hasn’t helped.

AT THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE, an answer to Tom Ricks’ question.

THE SPACE REVIEW looks at satellite collisions. Rand Simberg comments: “Clearly, the entire international system in place for dealing with this kind of problem (to the degree that it exists at all) needs to be overhauled.”

TAXPROF: More on Tax Consequences of Rahm Emanuel’s Rent-Free Use of D.C. Home.

DAMON ROOT ON Restoring the Privileges or Immunities Clause. “Why the 14th Amendment matters in the fight for a free society.”

TOBY HARNDEN: How politics works: Senator Christopher Dodd and his cosy Irish cottage.

Check out the picture of Dodd’s “cottage” (provided to me by Rennie), where he spends summers and which is looked after during the rest of the year by a caretaker. It’s not exactly the humble tumbledown abode with a leaky thatched roof, a fireplace with peat thrown on it and donkey tethered outside that the Senator might like you to envisage.

The nearby village of Roundstone is a celebrity hangout. . . . Given the Irish property boom, a conservative estimate would be that the house would be worth approaching $1 million, and very possibly much more than that.

So why hasn’t Dodd declared a more realistic true value of the property? No doubt he didn’t want to highlight the fact that he had a third splendid pile, to go along with his residences in DC and Connecticut, as he sought the presidency (remember how all those homes harmed John McCain?). Maybe he knew it would mean further scrutiny of his connection with the pardoned crook Downe.

Read the whole thing.

LATIN AMERICANS decry U.S. drug war.

POLITICO: Obama’s test: a nation of Santellis. “But if the White House simply dismisses Santelli’s point, it may do so at its peril: A Rasmussen poll released Monday found that 55 percent of those surveyed thought federal mortgage subsidies to those most at risk of losing their homes would be ‘rewarding bad behavior.’ . . . And it’s not just Republicans who are complaining.”

TRILIONS AND TRILLIONS: “Pelosi and Reid called Bush’s budgets ‘dangerous’ and ‘unpatriotic,’ but with Obama, they’ve changed their tune.”

RECESSION IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, BUT BOOM TIMES IN D.C. “The cost of course goes beyond the price tag of the bailout. All of the money spent lobbying for a cut of the largess is also money sent to Washington that could have been spent actually creating wealth. The article also points to a looming brain drain, as the country’s best and brightest no longer fan out across the country to innovate and thrive in the private sector, they’re going where the money is. Which means they’re converging on D.C. for lucrative jobs with government contractors. . . . The problem of course is that all of that money and talent isn’t being harnessed to produce goods and services consumers actually want. It’s being used to fulfill the wish lists of the politicians who hand out the checks.” To some, of course, that’s not a bug, but a feature.

MATT WELCH: “Transparently untrue.”

GAWKER: The painfully ridiculous end to the NYU revolution. “This video is a blow to romantic notions of student activism. A hilarious blow!”

UPDATE: Enjoying the hilarity.

“MISSOURI KIDS AND GRANDKIDS will pay that debt off.” Possibly in preference to Social Security benefits . . . .

THE HITS KEEP COMING: Rogue Financier Stanford Linked to Fund Run by Bidens. Not sure how much fire there is underneath the smoke, but still . . .

MICKEY KAUS IS backing Tom Geoghegan for Rahm Emanuel’s seat. Good enough for me.

THE BIG MOUTH OF SENATOR CHRIS DODD: “Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, R-Conn., [sic] sent bank stocks into a tailspin Friday with an unguarded comment. The White House had to issue its own comment later to restore equilibrium to stock markets. Some speculators could have made or lost millions. . . . He didn’t know anything. He was just shooting off his mouth. But major bank stocks lost a quarter to a third of their entire value in a matter of minutes.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: They no longer have Dodd as a Republican at the link.