Republicans are trying to get to the bottom of  Countrywide Financial's sweetheart deals with Democratic politicians but the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Edolphus Towns, is refusing to issue a subpoena.This becomes even more important now that this Wall Street Journal article by John Emshwiller has revealed that Countrywide destroyed taped phone conversations with borrowers in their "VIP" program:A Bank of America spokesman said in a written statement that the VIP recordings "were retained only for a limited time or until available recording space was utilized. Due to these limitations, we have no recordings from before July 2008 when Bank of America assumed management of Countrywide and terminated the VIP program." Many companies routinely record phone conversations with customers, both for internal-training purposes and to help resolve disputes over what was said during a call. On Thursday, Mr. Issa sent a letter to...(Read Full Post)