Dodd might have lots of issues, but much of the recent criticism is deeply unfair and his critics are really blowing up Dodd's role when it is Geithner and Summers who were lobbying against retroactive restrictions. From Campaign Diaries:

The provision that Dodd helped dilute was his own amendment. Sure, he did end up bowing to Treasury’s anti-retroactivity stance instead of fighting it, but it is unfair to make him into the main culprit since he was the one to propose retroactivity in the first place... Without him, there would not have been any retroactivity to strike out of the bill.

That Democrats are throwing under the bus someone who is up for re-election in 2010 is really confusing to me.

It's clearly too much to expect that Geithner & Summers will "take one for the team" and admit THEIR authorship of the entire AIG bonus fiasco.

But why won't Obama grow a pair and throw THIS pair [G & S] under the bus for the good of both the country and his administration?

I'm on again, off again with Dodd, but I would take him any day of the week for the Fed over Summers. That sends shivers down my spine. I wouldn't trust Summers any further than I could throw him.

Great reporting, Elana. You need to keep chasing this down, and also get Josh on the scent of this on the front page comments by him.

This is pretty clearly Summers style. He's throwing people under the bus left and right to protect and expand his position. I think we all know that if the heat get hotter, Timmy goes under the bus while Summers deflects blame.

The notion of Summers as Fed Chair is mind numbingly frightening. As lots of people have written during this crisis, The Fed is largely a government unto itself at this point. What we've seen is them take actions that look to be far beyond their charter, but no one seems to have the ability to step in to stop or even review clearly what they're up to.

Regardless of what we think of Bernanke's job performce, I think we'll all admit that he isn't remotely the politcal and financial animal the Summers is. Give him the keys to The Fed directly and we're beyond fucked.

On a side note, someone needs to start banging the drums on candidates to replace Timmy if he's forced to walk the plank. We badly need to avoid another Summers/Rubin Puppet in the role.

Robert Reich isn't a Summers/Rubin Puppet. He's run a Department in the Cabinet. He's not a thrall to Wall Street and the Banks. It would be a rather strong voice of sanity opposite Summers at this point.

I doubt Robert would want to work "under" Summers as Timmy clearly is. But that's the point - Obama (and we) need someone who isn't under Summers and can crack through that ceiling to get Obama's ear. We don't have six months or a year to keep jerking around on this stuff until Obama realizes that the path Summers is leading him down is a fatally flawed one.

John

John

I'm sorry, I don't understand what this article is saying. A pack of Dems decided to take down Dodd so that Summers could be the next Fed Chairman?

Someone please dumb down this article for me because it sounds like a real stretch and a whole lot of guessing.

My guess for why Dodd was "thrown under the bus"? Uhm, they are politicians - elections are coming up - republicans are out for blood - Americans are angry and looking for someone to blame - who wants to be that person? Maybe those Dems are cowards plain and simple. Dems aren't exactly known for their loyalty.

Dodd has two problems that has helped point him as the fall guy that has nothing to do with Summers.
1. $104k donations from AIG
2. A sweet mortgage deal which some suspect was a perk.

I'm not against Dodd, and according to Huffington Post the GOP have put out talking points against Dodd to make him the fall guy. I'm just saying Dodd came into this situation with some previous questions about his ties to Wall Street.

If this is true then it's a reason why Summers should be kept as far away from any position of public power as possible - including the one he now holds. He's playing games for his own petty advancement.

The way they walked Dodd into a buzzsaw, did a lot of damage to him politically and THEN Geithner came out with the statement that Treasury wanted some of the changes is grossly incompetent.

Summers and Geithner are protecting the order on Wall St. They are too worried about the bunch of crooks there and no worried enough about carrying out the promises their boss has made.

Again, Obama appointed them and other center-righties, thinking they are the best people to carry out a center-left agenda. Of course this happens. It's ludicrous all around.

It's absurd that AIG went out and awarded millions in bonus money. It's more absurd for the government to come in after the fact and tax employees at ninety percent for taking the bonuses.

The government has determined AIG is too big to fail. So, it should have, in exchange for the money, demanded that AIG not award bonuses. Once the cash is out there, though, it's ridiculous for the government to come in and take it. Ridiculous.

Because the Minnesota Twins are getting public money for a ballpark, should their employees give back their salaries of millions and millions? I mean, we've already decided to give the Twins the cash, but maybe, now that the state is in financial straits, we should just tax the hell out of the athletes' salaries. That would feel a lot better. Or, maybe along with the salaries, we should publish the addresses and phone numbers of the players so the public could, you know, express their outrage at their salaries to their faces.

Please. This posturing is ridiculous. The answer to the problem was at the beginning of the bailout period -- when we should have offered the company the money in exchange for some restrictions. Instead, it was, "Take the cash, AIG, and get your company solvent." To come in months later with new restrictions is disgusting.

It makes me hope that Barney Frank never sees the chair of any government committee ever again.