Blogs For Victory

Republican criticisms may not hold water with the faithful left… but now Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) is blaming the Obama administration for the AIG bonus scandal…

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Obama administration asked him to insert a provision in last month’s $787 billion economic- stimulus legislation that had the effect of authorizing American International Group Inc.’s bonuses.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday he agreed to modify restrictions on executive pay at companies receiving taxpayer assistance to exempt bonuses already agreed upon in contracts. He said he did so without realizing the change would benefit AIG, whose recent $165 million payment to employees has sparked a public furor.

Dodd said he had wanted to limit executive compensation at companies that got money from the government’s financial-rescue fund. AIG has received $173 billion in bailout money. His provision was changed as the stimulus legislation was negotiated between the House and Senate.

“I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate- passed amendment” to the stimulus bill, “but I did so at the request of administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG,” Dodd said in a statement released last night.

“Let me be clear — I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week,” said Dodd, who didn’t name the administration officials who made the request.

In all fairness, Dodd is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate in 2010… and he may be trying to shift blame away from himself to save his chances of reelection, which this scandal most certainly hurts. Still, Barack Obama is responsible in that he signed the legislation that made those bonuses possible.

Sadly, Barack Obama, is not taking the blame… though he thinks he can save face by claiming to “accept responsibility.”

“Nobody here drafted those contracts (providing for the bonuses). Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in,” Obama said. “We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again.”

Sorry, but signing into law a bill that allowed for those bonuses means you aren’t just responsible for the bonuses… but it means you are partially to blame. Accepting responsibility after denying any role in the situation is meaningless, especially when his signature allowed for those bonuses to happen.

Once again, Obama is passing the buck, even though he is pretending not to.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And here’s the people who got AIG money:

Some of the donations to lawmakers include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), $103,100;then-Senator, now President Barack Obama(D-Ill.), $101,332; then-Senator, now Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del.), $19,975; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), $59,499; former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), $35,965; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), $11,000; and Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT), $24,750.

“During that period of time when these companies were imploding and coming to the American people and asking for funds — I think political contributions coming during that time to Senator Dodd or others certainly bears further examination,” Pence told CNSNews.com.

Now, liberals, you were quick to demand that GOPers tainted with Abramoff money resign…what do you wish to do to Democrats tainted with AIG money?