California Conservative

Fox Business Channel nails Sen. Christopher Dodd’s hypocrisy in this article:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9159, 0.1358, 17.41%) 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.

Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

Sen. Dodd has gotten by mostly by looking senatorial. He isn’t the brightest bulb in the Senate’s chandelier. His specialty is his ability to talk out both sides of his mouth. That worked 15 years ago. With the eternal memory of the internet, though, talking out both sides of one’s mouth backfires more often than it works.

Sen. Dodd’s faux outrage will soon be replaced by real outrage on behalf of America’s taxpayers. His getting caught isn’t helping him in the accessability department:

Dodd’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Finally, here’s what the Dodd amendments said:

• Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.
• For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).

Let’s hope Connecticut’s voters take their frustration out on Sen. Dodd in November, 2010.

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