New Haven Independent

Posted by: lance | March 23, 2009 12:40 PM

In addition to getting the special interest rate on his mortgage from countrywide he also had the points waived, which saved him several thousand dollars.

But I blame Obama for this whole debacle. Why? Because he PROMISED transparency, then he turned around and rushed this thing to vote, intentionally not giving anybody any time to pick up on the bonus issue. Gaithner an Obama knew ALL about it prior. Now Paul Bass, Arianna Huington, and Barack Obama are quick to throw Dodd under the bus to mask the fact that Obama was equally culpable. One man's "buck paser" is another man's co-conspirator.

Posted by: robn | March 23, 2009 12:56 PM

There mud on everybody's fender. Red flags should have been both Bush and Obamas high appointments of Goldman Sachs people.

Posted by: Hood Rebel | March 23, 2009 2:30 PM

It's unfortunate how Dodd is taking all the heat for the typical bu%$s**t coming out of Washington.

What about these phoney republican conservatives who also made sure the bonus loophole was in the package!

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/17/republicans-opposed-paycaps/

Give me a brick!
_

Posted by: Eileen | March 23, 2009 4:52 PM

TERM LIMITS----- TERM LIMITS----- TERM LIMITS----- Starting in 2012 any pol in Washington with more than eight (8) years should have to resign and from then on the max a Senator or Congressmen/woman can serve is eight (8) years. Twenty or thirty years in Washington is too much even for the most honorable person. We need to start a MOVEMENT towards this goal.

Posted by: Your Tax Dollars at Work | March 23, 2009 4:53 PM

Dodd has been a generally liberal and responsible Senator having supported important initiatives for children and health care, etc.

His weakness -- (to paraphrase Willie Sutton): the banks are where the money is.

After 3 decades of well-paid public service, Chris needs to go off to some lobbying firm where his senatorial mien, mane, and lifetime access to the Senate floor will be greatly appreciated and overly compensated!

Posted by: Westville Mom | March 23, 2009 8:21 PM

FYI-an AIG connection---Dodd's WIFE....a lengthy excerpt from an article (cited below): "From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an "outside" director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty catastrophe insurance coverage, was formed in 1993 and currently has a market cap of $1.4 billion and trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IPCR. In 2001, in addition to a public offering of 15 million shares of stock that raised $380 million, IPC raised more than $109 million through a simultaneous private placement sale of 5.6 million shares of stock to AIG - giving AIG a 20% stake in IPC. (AIG sold its 13.397 million shares in IPC in August, 2006.)

Clegg was compensated for her duties to the company, which was managed by a subsidiary of AIG. In 2003, according to a proxy statement, Clegg received $12,000 per year and an additional $1,000 for each Directors' and committee meeting she attended. Clegg served on the Audit and Investment committees during her final year on the board.

IPC paid millions each year to other AIG-related companies for administrative and other services. Clegg was a diligent director. In 2003, the proxy statement report, she attended more than 75% of board and committee meetings. This while she served as the managing partner of Clegg International Consultants, LLC, which she created in 2001, the year she joined the board of IPC. (See Dodd's public financial disclosure reports with the Senate from 2001-2004 here.)

Dodd is likely more familiar with the complicated workings of AIG than he was letting on last week....." http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/dodds_wife_a_former_director_o.html
(Author: Kevin Rennie)

Posted by: Yaakov Stern | March 23, 2009 10:21 PM

Everyone is infuriated with Dodd, but I think that most people are mad for the wrong reasons. Lance, you're a reactionary with an ax to grind about Obama, and you jump at any opportunity to knock Obama or any other Democrat. And everyone else wants to run Chris Dodd out on a rail because it turns out he either initiated or allowed large executive bonuses to be a part of the package to help the banks. I'm not sure this is all really relevant, though, and it may be a bit early to decide that Senator Dodd is done for.

Paul has a legitimate issue here, and his point was that everyone else is getting worked up for the wrong reasons. The problem with Dodd isn't that he showed his true colors by helping out the bankers, and its not even that he did what the leader of his country and his party asked him to, either directly or indirectly--the problem is that he did something that we're all mad about.

Are bonuses something to get mad about? Sure, its unfair that some of the people responsible are getting loads of money when they should be punished. But the bonuses are a) fairly standard in the banking industry, and b) not a significant percentage of the money involved in the bill. It is probably far too early to judge the Obama administration on this--give it a year, Lance. If he really messed up, you can still berate him then. Now you just sound like an angry Republican beating up on him the first chance you get. Obama is supposed to lead the country in the right direction, which means some of the things he does will be neither immediately popular nor immediately successful. The real problem with Dodd is that it IS his job to represent his constituents when the administration presents him something like this.

But then again, 2010 is still a year away. Give it a little time; maybe this brought Chris Dodd back to earth. He's done a lot of good work for the people of Connecticut in the past, lets see if he still has it in him to do more.

Posted by: robn | March 24, 2009 8:39 AM

WVMOM,

Nice catch...although I wonder why the Dodd family would be swayed by $12,000, which seems like a lot to me but doesn't seem like it would be a lot to them?

Posted by: Morris Cove | March 24, 2009 12:17 PM

Hood You can't place the blame on the Republican party, they voted against the Stimulis package. It was our Democratic party that put in all the ear marks and pork, like the millions of dollars snuck in to fund a party in St. Augusta, Fl, and the monorail from Cal., to Nevada. Dodd knew what he was doing when he snuck in the bonuses for the A.I.G. fat cats that put that company in the toilet, they funded his runs. No it's high time we place the blame on ourselves for voting in this greedy self serviving egotistical and arrogant clown

Posted by: lance | March 24, 2009 12:45 PM

Yaakov, your boys Obama and Dodd lied.

(True, I don't like Obama. I don't like socialism period. Plus he and his wife don't like whitey.)

Posted by: Hood Rebel | March 24, 2009 1:57 PM

Regarding Lance's remarks!

Never argue with this fool, he will drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience.

Posted by: Westville Mom | March 24, 2009 3:19 PM

ROBN--My sense of what Rennie is saying is that Dodd's "insider" information is more relevant than the actual dollar amt. (which, btw, was $12,000/year PLUS $1000 for each meeting--and she attended 75% of them, whatever that amounts to.) Dodd's silly pretension of "innocence"--of knowledge relating to such things as his own mortgage rates and the inner workings and bonuses of AIG--is being blown out of the water as more and more information like this surfaces.
However, I take little solace in this, as I believe his likely Dem. successor will be just as leftist, if not more so, which is what the voters of CT seem to want...another "Rubber-Stamp" Rosa-type, probably. Fear not, the "one-party" system of CT is alive and well--as long as we can keep the percentages of permanent-underclass/immigrants/academics in CT as high as it is now.
At the very least, though, it serves to show that an entrenched, leftist party is no better than any other party when it comes to corruption--they're just (vastly) better at telling happy-talk lies to a gullible, un-inquisitive populace. I agree with Eileen's call (above) for term limits...it may be the only weapon a mortally wounded republic has left in its arsenal after this President gets done with us.

Posted by: ROBN | March 24, 2009 7:00 PM

WVMOM,

The irony here is that, ...you're gonna love this...your left seems to be my right. I had grave reservations during the primaries about Obama being too conservative . His stocking the White House with Wall Street insiders gave me a very sinking feeling.

Posted by: Moreorless | March 24, 2009 7:36 PM

Anyone who sympathizes with Dodd is unaware of reality. This POS is a crook, cheat & liar. He is the Chairman--YES Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He is well in the know of what was coming down the pike with all of the decisions he & his political buddies were making.
This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is a right & wrong issue. Can any of you hard working, or out of job people excuse a man who was a large part of these banks & Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac being allowed to get so far off track. They were betting on the CDO's and other Derivatives. He is one of the few people that caused our unemployment rate to go to 8.1% and still rising. The others with major roles are B. Franks, G. Bush, H. Paulson. They all had major parts in creating the second depression. Dodd's input was done in exchange for a comfy job for his wife, huge campaign donations, and a nice mortgage rate from Countrywide when everyone else was getting 8%. He & any of these other POS's should be banned from politics and jailed for their treasonous acts against the US Taxpayer. It is time to rid ourselves of the career politician. Enact term limits on all offices so no politician can get relaxed and only serve the needs of the rich. They all forget about us little people because we can not pay them the big bucks their greedy little egos need.