Heh: Dodd's Wife Worked for AIG Subsidiary

When I suggested the other day that the socialist bus tour take a ride past Chris Dodd's house, I had no idea his wife once was a director for one of their subsidiaries.

Dodd may want to seriously consider retirement.

No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG. Dodd has been one of the company's favorite recipients of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd's wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well. 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.)

Read the rest.

Via LGF links.

Biden Adviser on Confiscatory AIG Tax: 'That May Be a Dangerous Way To Go'

Am I hearing this correctly? A Democrat arguing against a 100% tax rate?

Break out the flying pig.

Vice President Joe Biden's economic adviser warned Sunday that a congressional plan to tax American International Group Inc. executives' bonuses may go too far in using the tax code as a tool for retribution.

President Barack Obama has not said whether he would veto some version of a House-backed plan to heavily tax the $165 million in bonuses. Biden economist Jared Bernstein said it's important to look at what version of the proposal comes out of the Senate.

"I think the president would be concerned that this bill may have some problems in going too far — the House bill may go too far in terms of some — some legal issues, constitutional validity, using the tax code to surgically punish a small group," Bernstein said in a television interview. "That may be a dangerous way to go."

Legal issues? Constitutional validity?

When did that ever stop these people before?

Media Outnumber Mob Protesters on AIG Bus Tour

Apparently the Working Families Party (a/k/a/ Socialists) just couldn't scare up enough vigilantes to take part on the bus tour today. Geez, even Al Sharpton can gather up a larger rent-a-mob.

Rather than call this motley band of human debris what they are, the Associated Press calls them "working families" and "activists," although by my definition those who work for AIG also qualify as working families since they have jobs and seemingly most of these protesters don't.

Funny, though, after the Democrats whipped up such hysteria this week all they could get to turn out was 40 lonely protesters and they were outnumbered by the media.

A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout.

About 40 protesters — outnumbered by reporters and photographers from as far away as Germany — sought to urge AIG executives who received a portion of the $165 million in bonuses to do more to help families.

"We think $165 million could be used in a more appropriate way to keep people in their homes, create more jobs and health care," said Emeline Bravo-Blackport, a gardener.

Well, there may have been jobs created, but the Democrats are taking all that money, Emeline, or haven't you heard? Oh well, there go those jobs.

She marveled at AIG executive James Haas' colonial house, which has stunning views of a golf course and the Long Island Sound. The Fairfield house is "another part of the world" from her life in nearby Bridgeport, which flirted with bankruptcy in the 1990s and still struggles with foreclosures and unemployment."

"Lord, I wonder what it's like to live in a house that size," she said.

Heck, maybe some day if she worked hard enough she could find out.

Another protester, Claire Jeffery, of Bloomfield, said she's on the verge of foreclosure. She works as a housekeeper; her husband, a truck driver, can't find work.

"I love my home," she said. "I really want people to help us."

Maybe you can swing by Chris Dodd's lavish house and see if he can help you.

Besides Haas' home, protesters on Saturday also visited the Fairfield home of AIG executive Douglas Poling. They were met both times by security guards.

If they came by my house they'd be greeted by water cannons and flamethrowers.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Update: Turnabout is fair play. Here's a look at some of these agitators.

Thanks also to Hot Air and Moe Lane for the links.

Ready for More Feigned Outrage? AIG Actually Paid $218 Million in Bonuses

That figure is now $53 million more than originally reported. The Democrats ought to be able to milk a few more days of rage out of this now.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Connecticut's attorney general says documents turned over to his office by American International Group Inc. shows the company paid out $218 million in bonuses, higher than the $165 million previously disclosed.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office received the documents late Friday after issuing a subpoena.

Blumenthal says the documents show that 73 people received at least $1 million apiece, and five of those got bonuses of more than $4 million. The financially ailing insurance giant has been under fire for giving bonuses after receiving more than $182.5 billion in federal bailout money.

AIG spokesman Mark Herr declined to comment Saturday.

Yeah, he's probably in hiding now that the bus tours of AIG homeowners is under way.

Meanwhile, in a comic turn of events, one of the architects of this fiasco is now playing the victim. Poor thing.

On-the-ropes Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd swung back at his critics yesterday, claiming he was misled over the hefty taxpayer-funded bonuses for AIG executives.

Dodd made the comments amid fury over the $165 million in bonuses the troubled insurer gave executives.

"No one's angrier than I am to watch something I thought was worthwhile, that I put in the bill," altered in a way that led to the AIG bonuses, Dodd said.

He said he was wrongly held up as the sole person responsible.

"Now everyone's getting religion on the issue," said Dodd.

I'm praying the voters give him the boot next year.

How'd the Vetters Miss This? Obama Special Envoy Served on AIG Board

Why, I'm outraged! I wonder if Chuckie Schumer and Barney Fwank will be demanding some money from him?

Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage.

Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration's point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008. During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.

President Barack Obama has insisted his administration was not responsible for AIG's financial woes, and a White House spokesman said Thursday that Holbrooke was unaware of AIG's decision to award retention bonuses to key employees.

The best and brightest, always totally unaware of what's happening on their watch. Holbrooke apparently made out very well.

According to the SEC filings, AIG paid Holbrooke $267,943 in fees and stock awards in 2007; he was paid $232,865 in 2006. Compensation figures for the six months he was on the board in 2008 are not yet available. By prorating his 2007 compensation, he could have earned about $107,500 in directors fees and stock.

Between 2001 and 2005 the records indicate he earned $200,000 in director's fees. He also received 2,400 shares of AIG stock and options to purchase 10,000 more during that period.

Meanwhile, here come the lynch mobs.

Now these executives are toxic, and those communities are rattled and divided. Private security guards have been stationed outside their houses, and sometimes the local police drive by. A.I.G. employees at the company’s office tower in Lower Manhattan were told to avoid leaving the building while a demonstration was going on outside. The memo also advised them to avoid displaying company-issued ID cards when they left the office and to abandon tote bags or other items with the A.I.G. logo.

One A.I.G. executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared the consequences of identifying himself, said many workers felt demonized and betrayed. “It is as bad if not worse than McCarthyism,” he said. Everyone has sacrificed the employees of A.I.G.’s financial products division, he said, “for their own political agenda.”

The public’s anger, he said, “is coming from bad facts as a result of someone else’s agenda — or just bad facts period.” Instead, he said, the so-called bonuses were in fact just payments that had been promised long ago to workers, including technical and administrative assistants.

A.I.G. employees are not the only ones seeking protection: An executive at Merrill Lynch, where bonuses have also come under fire, said that some employees had asked whether the firm would cover the cost of private security for them.

I hope these thugs in Washington are happy now that people's lives are in danger.

Now we even have socialist bus tours of AIG employees' homes. Classy.

The Connecticut Working Families party, which has support from organized labor, is planning a bus tour of A.I.G. executives’ homes on Saturday, with a stop at the company’s Wilton office.

“We’re going to be peaceful and lawful in everything we do,” said Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families. “I know there’s a lot of anger and a lot of rage about what’s happened. We’re not looking to foment that unnecessarily, but what we want to do is give folks in Bridgeport and Hartford and other parts of Connecticut who are struggling and losing their homes and their jobs and their health insurance an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy.”

Democrat Climate of Hate Leads to Death Threats Against AIG

Where's the outrage?

A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn't show up at all.

"It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger."

Politicians and the public spent yesterday demanding that AIG rescind payouts that they said rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. But company officials contend that the uproar is scaring away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products' complex trades and who are trying to dismantle the division before it further endangers the world's economy.

"It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly."

What happened to the presumption of innocence?

Meanwhile, the man who was the recipient of the most money from Bernie Madoff is threatening to take away the bonuses.

"They should voluntarily return them (the bonuses). If they don't we plan to tax virtually all of it," Senator Charles Schumer, a member of the Democratic leadership, said in a speech on the Senate floor.

To date there's no evidence Schumer has given back the hundreds of thousands of dollars he took from Madoff while he was chairing the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee. Considering that was all dirty Madoff money, maybe we can arrange a special tax on it, or better yet, just confiscate all of it and put it toward a fund to reimburse Madoff's victim?

What say you, Chuckie?

Update: Just to make it crystal clear, here's a list of recipients of Madoff's money.For the record, the most recent donation paid while Schumer headed the DSCC:

MADOFF, BERNARD L
NEW YORK, NY 10022
BERNARD L. MADOFF INVEST.-SEC./CHAI
DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE (D)
$25,000
primary
09/12/08

Feel free to review the rest of them. Again, zero indication Schumer has returned Madoff's dirty money.

And he has the temerity to demand people who received contractually obligated bonuses hand them over.

The hypocristy meter has exploded.

Chris Dodd, Largest Recipient of AIG Money, Tries to Rewrite Law He Slipped Into Porkulus Bill

Talk about double dealing. Last month we noted Connecticut's odious Christopher Dodd at the last minute slipped a provision into the Porkulus bill capping pay for bank executives.

Now amidst all the manufactured outrage over AIG bonuses, Dodd pulls a lame stunt like this.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group bonus recipients so the government could recoup 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.

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly 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 seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Idiot can't even remember a stunt he pulled from a month ago. Which shouldn't surprise anyone since that's all this guy does 24/7.

But wait, it gets better.

Much better.

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

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

One of AIG Financial Products’ largest offices is based in Connecticut.

Oh, and you'll never guess who was No. 2 recipient of AIG money. Click the image to find out.