Dodd scrambles over A.I.G.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of insurance giant AIG goes to Capitol Hill this morning, where he'll reluctantly defend millions of dollars' worth of bonuses doled out to employees despite the company's need for a $170 billion government bailout. Edward M. Liddy, who took over AIG last fall, says the bonus payments, while "distasteful," had to be paid. Liddy, chairman and CEO of American International Group Inc., has become the reluctant defender of princely employee bonuses that members of Congress -- and much of the American public -- find indefensible. AIG, the giant insurance company that has received $170 billion in government assistance, is paying more than $200 million in bonuses to keep employees from fleeing its troubled financial products division. On Wednesday, Liddy is to pull up a chair at a congressional witness table and take the heat.
Rep. Barney Frank says Congress should rewrite a Depression-era law that the Federal Reserve used to give American International Group its initial government bailout. Frank said Congress had no say in the decision last fall to plow $85 billion in taxpayers money into the insurance giant, and said that because of that no conditions were attached to the deal to limit or restrain the payment of executive bonuses.

The above AP article explains quite well the AIG situation that is currently causing such commotion in Congress. Several facts are missing however, mainly a discussion of the Dodd amendment, written by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)

Though Sen. Chris Dodd, is among those leading the charge on retrieving the bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back. The amendment, meant to restrict executive pay for bailed-out banks, also included an exception for "contractually obligated bonuses agreed on or before Feb. 11, 2009."
This would seem to exempt the AIG bonuses that lawmakers and President Obama are looking to recover.

Incidentally, Dodd is the largest single recipient of 2008 campaign donations from AIG, with $103,100, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Dodd amendment creates a "prohibition on what the president is now talking about," said Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House minority whip. He also accused the administration of being in "disarray." However, Dodd told FOX News late Tuesday that the exemption was not part of his original amendment and was only added during negotiations after the fact.
"When the language went to the conference and came back, there was different language," he said. "I can tell you this much, when my language left the Senate, it did not include it," he said, referring to the exemption. "When it came back, it did."

All this further proves that this administration and this rubber-stamping body of, largely Democrats, in Congress does not have a clue what they are doing. This monstrous $787 billion stimulus bill passed last month was apparently too big to read.

America wants to know:
”If the language in the bill was wrong, why was it signed into law?” and what about:

Nobody messes with Joe?