GOP Blames Dems For AIG Bonuses -- Dems Blame GOP Right Back
While Congress was focused today on grilling AIG over the executive bonuses, the two parties' House campaign committees have been doing their own back and forth over which party deserves the blame for it.
The NRCC today sent out a press release to the districts of targeted Democrats, accusing them of supporting the AIG bonuses by having voted for the stimulus bill. This goes back to the fact that an 11th-hour amendment to the stimulus bill limited executive compensation on financial institutions receiving bailout money, but didn't apply the limitation retroactively to prior contracts.
Now the DCCC has sent out a rebuttal statement, slamming Republicans for having blocked previous efforts at limiting executive pay.
And now the NRCC has sent out a fundraising e-mail promoting Jim Tedisco, the Republican candidate in Kirsten Gillibrand's old House district, who has begun tying the stimulus bill to the AIG bonuses in his campaign. Key quote, emphasis theirs: "The Democrats in this race have based their campaign message on support for the wasteful stimulus package that has allowed AIG to use taxpayer money to provide million dollar bonuses to executives."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Looks to me like Dodd is gonna be toast in 2010(election) unless something BIG goes his way...
Dodd facing fresh political firestorm
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) looks like he may be facing a fresh political firestorm.
Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision. .
“We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,” Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.
“But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.”
Dodd had previously said that he played no role in writing the controversial language, and was not a part of the conference committee that inserted the language in the bill. As late as today, Dodd’s spokeswoman denied the senator’s involvement.
The AIG bonuses have caused a political firestorm, with Republicans and Democrats alike looking to lay blame for who’s responsible, and leading lawmakers looking to revoke the bonuses.
Dodd’s role in the legislation will likely come up as he faces the likelihood of a tough re-election. Former GOP congressman Rob Simmons announced he was running this week, and has already taken issue with Dodd’s stewardship as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
March 18, 2009 10:40 PM | Reply | Permalink