First off, hat tip to BoBo for coming across data on donations from AIG.
A lot has been made of employee bonuses at AIG, and for good reason. The bonuses were part of a legally binding contract prior to money being given to AIG. Chris Dodd added an amendment that provided an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.” Oddly enough, the very bonuses everyone is up in arms about are part of that exception.
Since we are watchdogging money closely, as we should be, perhaps we should look at having politicians return political donations that were made from AIG to their campaign. AIG was not in a condition to be giving out political donations at that time, and giving those donations surely didn’t help their financial situation.
I do find it interesting who the top person is on their donation list. I will give the benefit of the doubt to Dodd though and put aside any thought of the amendment having anything to do with AIG being a loyal donor. Regardless, it would be a wonderful gesture if Dodd returned the $103,100 that was donated to his campaign. Obama could return his $101,332 and McCain could return the $59,499. Heck, if all the politicians returned last year’s donations, AIG could get nearly $600,000 back! It isn’t much, but sometimes you have to take some baby steps in order to gain some momentum.
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Posted under Economy
Written by admin on March 18, 2009
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600k back. LOL. You’re dealing with a little problem of scale here.
Plus, you’re being mislead by Fox…again!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/17/709636/-Dodd
You think I’m going to trust a KOS link? I could only imagine the reaction if I went over there and used freerepublic as a debate source.
If you don’t think $600k is anything, please click on the donate link and donate it to the site. Politicians shouldn’t be collecting our tax money (TARP) as donations.
I don’t trust Fox, you don’t trust Kos. Stalemate!
Fox Business = nationally syndicated news source… KOS = self-admitted left-wing blog… Yeah, that’s a stalemate alright.
Here’s a nationally syndicated news source that many say is left slated… Maybe this will meet your high standards: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?_r=1&hp
And here’s a site any die-hard left-winger can trust: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/16/national-outrage-forces-o_n_175554.html
We’re not arguing the relative merits of the bonuses. My position is they really don’t matter all that much. Drop in the bucket and just political fodder. Nobody serious about the economy can be so worried about $165 million. We’re way beyond that level of being in the shit.
We’re arguing the veracity of the article you and all other righties are pushing relative to Dodd. All my reading of it is that Senator Dodd is not responsible for that language, nor is it “just Democrats”. So far you’ve been unable to refute the points debunked at the Kos link. Like it or not, you can’t just ignore the fact that there are serious problems with the story.
There’s already been 3 national news sites pick this story up and talk about it. I haven’t seen anything on the legitimate wires debunking this as of yet. If you have anything (and I’m not talking about biased blog sites), feel free to point it out. I wouldn’t accept even anything that’s written straight up on my own blog as straight up fact unless it was backed up with a legitimate news source.
Yes…and they are all parroting the same misinformation:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200903180019?f=h_latest
Believe what you want. Facts don’t change.
CNN has a video with Dodd admitting that he did indeed insert the loophole after he adamantly denied it. The man is a liar.
Careful Vulcan, not sure if Eric will consider CNN a viable source of information.
@9: LOL. I like that! I still think maybe Dodd is taking a fall, but I’m happy to see him do it. Could be worse I guess. The guy could be President.
At least now there is something to report other than un-sourced speculation.