More Dodd Game: Tries to Overturn His Own Bonus Protections

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is the stereotypical politician and always has been. Their is no line he won't cross or donation he won't take. He's shameless and a huckster while wielding a ton of political power. But even this is too much to take:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9199, 0.1398, 17.92%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

The move represents somewhat of an about-face for the Senator.

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.

The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law.

Emphasis mine.


Dodd was the largest recipient of donations from AIG given to anyone in the House or Senate. So, as payback to AIG, he added this little stipulation into the bill so the bonuses could be given and he'd keep his donors happy and willing to give when it came election time again. One problem though; the Obama administration gave the order to the Dems to go out and slam the bonuses in every media they could. They went on the Sunday news shows and it was all over the papers yesterday and today. So now, Dodd is in a curious predicament: he has to simultaneously act outraged by the bonuses but also reconcile how it was that he was the one who allowed them in the first place.

But don't worry, the oily Dodd has come up with new, stricter rules that will show those rich white men what's what.

With any luck, maybe Dodd will get beaten next election, His numbers are bad and it seems that the good folks of Connecticut are paying attention. With his questionable Countrywide loan and his Irish "cottage", it may well be time that they show him the door. Alas, I thought the same thing about Pennsylvanians and Murtha but they re-elected him after he called them all racists.