CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd’s mortgage problems make a WTIC list of top Connecticut news stories of the year:

As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd plays an important role in the Wall Street bailout package and congressional inquiries about the failures of companies that deal in subprime mortgages.

But he was questioned about his own mortgages in 2008 after Conde Nast Portfolio magazine reported that Dodd got preferential interest rates on two mortgages from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Dodd acknowledged that Countrywide placed him in a “VIP section,” but he denied he knew he was getting a special deal and said he was not friends with Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.

Dodd said that he and his wife refinanced their homes like millions of Americans did at the time and got a “market rate,” and would have walked away from the deal had he believed he was getting preferential treatment from Countrywide, a leading subprime lender at the center of the mortgage meltdown.

In October, Dodd said he will make information about the mortgages public after a Senate ethics inquiry completes its investigation.

There’s no reason for him not to release that information now, though he’d like you to think otherwise.