Dodd Blames Obama Administration for Change to Bonus Amendment

[Madtown HD Junkie]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aT_tMXRy2vDs

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Obama administration asked him to insert a provision in last month’s $787 billion economic- stimulus legislation that had the effect of authorizing American International Group Inc.’s bonuses.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday he agreed to modify restrictions on executive pay at companies receiving taxpayer assistance to exempt bonuses already agreed upon in contracts. He said he did so without realizing the change would benefit AIG, whose recent $165 million payment to employees has sparked a public furor.

Dodd said he had wanted to limit executive compensation at companies that got money from the government’s financial-rescue fund. AIG has received $173 billion in bailout money. His provision was changed as the stimulus legislation was negotiated between the House and Senate.

“I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment” to the stimulus bill, “but I did so at the request of administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG,” Dodd said in a statement released last night. “Let me be clear -- I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week.” He didn’t name the administration officials who made the request............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flXSuexNlV8

lying bastard

[Skyhi]

“I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment” to the stimulus bill, “but I did so at the request of administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG,” Dodd said in a statement released last night. “Let me be clear -- I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week.” He didn’t name the administration officials who made the request.[/I]...........




Another troubling example of our representatives not reading and/or understanding what they sign/support.

What do these people actually do all day?

[msmith198025]

Of course it came from someone else. What else should we expect? IT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!! I DID NOT KNOW!!!!....but I can not tell you who asked me to do it...right....

[Bear Paws]

Of course it came from someone else. What else should we expect? IT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!! I DID NOT KNOW!!!!....but I can not tell you who asked me to do it...right.... Colonel Barack Klink and Sargent Schultz Dodd.

[vurbano]

Colonel Barack Klink and Sargent Schultz Dodd.

What does that make Biden?

[vurbano]

Administration Wanted Bonuses In Bill


March 19th, 2009
Mr. Dodd’s latest version, via a forgiving CNN:


Dodd: Administration pushed for language protecting bonuses
Thu March 19, 2009

(CNN) — Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN Wednesday that he was responsible for language added to the federal stimulus bill to make sure that already-existing contracts for bonuses at companies receiving federal bailout money were honored.

Dodd acknowledged his role in the change after a Treasury Department official told CNN the administration pushed for the language.

Both Dodd and the official, who asked not to be named, said it was because administration officials were afraid the government would face numerous lawsuits without the new language.

Dodd, a Democrat, told CNN’s Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer that Obama administration officials pushed for the language to an amendment designed to limit bonuses and "golden parachutes" at those companies.

"The administration had expressed reservations," Dodd said. "They asked for modifications. The alternative was losing the amendment entirely."

On Tuesday, Dodd denied to CNN that he had anything to do with adding the language, which has been used by officials at bailed-out insurance giant AIG to justify paying millions of dollars in bonuses to executives after receiving federal money.

He said Wednesday that the "grandfather clause" language "seemed like innocent modifications" at the time.

"I agreed reluctantly," Dodd said. "I was changing the amendment because others were insistent." …

At a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, California, about an hour after Dodd spoke, President Barack Obama didn’t directly address the language change — but said he’ll take responsibility for the bonuses being awarded.

"We didn’t draft these contracts. We’ve got a lot on our plate. But it is appropriate when you’re in charge to make sure stuff doesn’t happen like this," he said. "So we’re going to do everything that we can to fix it." …

AIG’s derivatives branch is in Dodd’s home state. Many of the bonuses in question were awarded to executives at that branch. But in the written statement, Dodd said he had no idea the legislation would impact the company.

"Let me be clear — I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week," he said.

Dodd also said in the statement that his comments on Tuesday and Wednesday to CNN did not conflict.

"I answered a question by CNN [Tuesday] night regarding whether or not [an exemption before] a specific date was aimed at protecting AIG," he said. "When I saw that my comments had been misconstrued, I felt it was important to set the record straight — that this had nothing to do with AIG."

According to a transcript of the Tuesday interview, Dodd was asked about an executive-compensation provision "that exempts everything prior to February 11, 2009 — any contracts prior to that date."

He said that language was not in the version of the bill that left the Senate and that he was not one of the negotiators who hammered out a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the plan.

"I can’t point a finger at someone who offered a change at all," he said.

Asked whether he had later been able to figure out who added the language, he said, "I really don’t know."

In Wednesday’s interview, Dodd never said his Tuesday comments had been misunderstood.

"Going back and looking, I apologize," he said when questioned about his words from the day before…

Whatever else Mr. Dodd’s latest exegesis reveals, we now know for sure that everyone who was anyone knew about those wicked AIG bonuses months before last week.

The people in the Obama administration, Mr. Dodd and the rest of the top Democrats are not even good liars.http://sweetness-light.com/archive/administration-wanted-bonuses-in-bill

[Bear Paws]

What does that make Biden?Irrelevant?

[Madtown HD Junkie]

Irrelevant?

:free-happy-smileys-:free-happy-smileys-:free-happy-smileys-:free-happy-smileys-:free-happy-smileys-

[Madtown HD Junkie]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/20/dodd.bonuses/index.html?iref=24hours

now he says he was misled...
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/03/20/dodd.bonuses/art.chrisdodd.gi.jpg

[vurbano]

The rats are having a hard time finding cover.

[Madtown HD Junkie]

they think he is done in Connecticut.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/21/aig.dodd/index.html

[Bear Paws]

they think he is done in Connecticut.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/21/aig.dodd/index.html When even The Hartford Socialist Courant gets on his case you can stick a fork in him. http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/72941/

March 12, 2009

HARTFORD COURANT: Dodd Seen As Vulnerable in 2010 Race: “U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, already reeling from questions about his role in the Countrywide mortgage scandal and singed by the collapse of the nation’s banking industry, is being seen as increasingly vulnerable in the 2010 election.”

Plus, more questions about Dodd’s Irish “cottage:”

Mr. Dodd is busy these days blaming everyone else for the real-estate bubble and financial meltdown. But he owes his constituents and the Senate an honest accounting of his Galway property over the past 15 years. If its value grew with the rest of the area, he needs to explain why Mr. Kessinger handed it over for a song, why that isn’t an unreported gift under Senate rules, and what role Mr. Downe might have played as a middleman.

More broadly, Connecticut voters might want to know why their senior Senator has hung around for years with Mr. Downe, the kind of financial scoundrel Mr. Dodd spends so much time denouncing.