Dodd is a fraud!

dodd was on the right side of this, but he doesn't want to point fingers. it seems clear geithner and summers leaned on him. maybe others?

This is a non issue. Get the rubes worked up over chump change bonuses. The real issue is the stimulus package, a keynesian hog fest by people who'll profit when labor costs and real estate values hit rock bottom. Tax cuts, pork, and deficit spending indeed. It needs to be redone pronto. We need Clinton economic policy before we're all in bread lines.
Please see Stimulus Redux on my site at http://a-civilife.bloggspot.com

Paulson named Liddy to take the helm of AIG.

Paulson named Liddy to board of Goldman Sachs when Paulson was head of Goldman Sachs.

I didn't hear Paulson's name mentioned once today in the hearings,[nor when referring to the Treasury Dept.,of whom Paulson is head honco,btw.]Dodd kept saying "staff" at Treasury.

Is Paulson "He whose name shall not be uttered?",and the mystery entity who intervened on behalf of bonus retention?

Good-bye Chris. If you lie down with dogs often enough, you start to act like them.

Pardon my irreverent tone, but is anybody else beginning to notice a noxious stench coming from Washington?

(1) As the article states "...Dodd's original anti-bonus language would have been retroactive for firms that are recipients of TARP money...made modification because the Administration "had problems" with the amendment... the language was modified after the department voiced concerns..."

In other words the change was made at the direct request of the Obama administration. Given Dodd's power, influence and seniority on the Hill, whoever got the language changed must either be more powerful or spoke on behalf of someone more powerful than Dodd.

To stop the rot, we need to know who that person(s) was, and then give them the bonus they so richly deserve. They need to be fired.

(2) By his own admission, Geithner knew of the bonuses by at least last Tuesday, the President by last Thursday. And yet the public didn't find out until this past weekend, and only then because of a "leak," but more importantly only after the bonuses were already handed out. Outrage and indignation was only heard from the President on Monday. Too little. Too late.

If we, Joe Public had found out sooner, do you think AIG would have dared to dole out those bonuses. Now the bonuses have gone out and Congress and the President are demanding them back. Sure. The AIG fat cats are running to their check books to make us whole.

The President should tell AIG to get the American taxpayers money back. Let the bonus thieves sue. At least we would find out who they are. And even if their contracts are legal, I say 'jury nullification.'

WTF, over!! YGBSM. Every member of Congress who has served more than one term and 90% of first-termers are more beholden to their donors than to their citizen-constituents. We can no more rely on Reid and Pelosi, than Lieberman or Delay, for that matter. The only 2 members I even semi-trust are Feingold and Kucinich and Kucinich's consistency and proactiveness in pursuing progressive values is causing him to be increasingly isolated and ineffective beacause none of the other goobers have the cojones to step out and embrace truth and confront power.

All, of course, IMHO

LM in Jax

Dodd's finger pointing to the unnamed Treasury rep is pathetic. He needs to take responsibility for his actions. That being said between Treasury wanting the loop hole and the Fed signing off on the bonuses it's clear that the executive branch is singing a different tune to Wall Street than it is to main street. I hope for Obama's sake he can realize the seriousness of this and roll some heads otherwise his political capitol is going to shrink faster than an 401k.

After reading the article in The Hill (couldn't read the WSJ because of sub. req.), I don't share the vitriol being dispensed against either Dodd or Obama. The Hill report suggests that the administration's concern was about small banks (and relatively small compensation packages that would be made even smaller). Reading between the lines, however, was some expression of some fear that the compensation amendment could derail the entire bailout package. Who might have voted against it at the time?

We do need to know who in the administration leaned on Dodd, but beyond that, we need to know who was leaning on administration officials (quite possibly at the behest of lobbyists from the big banks).

I think maybe people like Dodd misunderstood what the Nov/08 elections were about. Let me refresh his memory.
WE ARE SICK OF LYING! ALL BRANDS OF LYING! PLEASE, PLEASE STOP LYING.
OK? Is that clear enough.
Please don't prove Nader right. Do you know how long it will take us to form a third party, win local elections, state elections, national elections...

Sorry, got cut off by a page reload. Anyway, I will no longer believe a word he says. And for all those people who are trying to cut Geithner off at the knees, have you thought about how much more likely it was AIG doing the actual pressuring?

If I were a conspiracy theorist I might say that some at AIG threatened Dodd that if he didn't modify his amendment to protect their bonuses they were going to leak to the media all the meetings they had with him over the years and the help he gave them in their business and how in turn they contributed bundles of $$$$$$ do-re-mi to his campaign.

This is truly a secondary question. The primary question, and the one that must be answered if we are going to deal with the mess we have made, is to find out how Gramm-Leach was enacted in 1999 removing the Glass-Steagall protection enacted by people who could see what would happen if insurance companies were allowed to act like banks.

It is a sorry story, of a bankrupt Congress and, sadly, of a President who called himself a member of the Democratic Party but often acted as if he was an Eisenhower Republican.

Take a look at this, if you have access to the Times archives: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02EEDF1E3CF934A35756C0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=Glass+Steagall+AND+%22white+House%22&st=nyt.

(If not, try this http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/3/18/22456/9923/524#c524)