Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) (WDCpix)
For Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), it's been a difficult week.
As the wrath over AIG bonuses has swept across the country and overtaken Washington, the Senate Banking Committee chairman has borne much of the blame for softening a law to allow those payments to be made. The episode has evoked questions about Dodd's credibility, raised eyebrows about his industry ties, and left Republicans drooling over the possibility that his once-untouchable Senate seat might be up for grabs in 2010.
Illustration by: Matt Mahurin
There's just one problem: It wasn't Dodd who engendered the AIG loophole.
Instead, White House economic officials swooped into congressional negotiations last month insisting that Dodd alter his own executive compensation proposal, passed by the Senate as part of the $787 billion stimulus package, so as not to restrict existing bonus contracts — the very type that ignited a firestorm this week when AIG began paying them out.
After implying earlier this week that he wasn't behind the changes, Dodd clarified his statement Wednesday, saying that he agreed to the White House modifications out of fear that the entire provision would be stripped out otherwise. That he's been blamed for empowering AIG's bonuses when his original proposal would have prevented them is just one of the absurdities to arise from the country's five-day obsession with AIG-gate.
REST http://washingtonindependent.com/35140/republicans-smell-blood-amid-dodd-scapegoating
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