Which Conferees Stripped Dodd's Anti-Bonus Language?

[Are_grits_groceries]

As is now widely reported, Senator Dodd has included language in the stimulus bill that would have retroactively blocked excessive compensation for employees at financial institutions receiving federal bailout money. However, at the request of the Treasury Department and the Obama administration, that language was stripped during the conference session. Senator Dodd was not in the conference session, but the following ten people were:

Senate:
Harry Reid D
Max Baucus D
Daniel Inouye D
Charles Grassley R
Thad Cochran R

House:
Dave Obey Wisconsin D
Charles Rangel NY D
Henry Waxman Calif D
Jerry Lewis Calif R
Dave Camp Michigan R

Which conferees stripped the language? Given that all three of the four Republicans (Camp was the exception) voted to prevent restrictions on excessive compensation (see here and here), we can pretty much count on them. Given that Charles Rangel was recently publicly opposed to clawing back the bonuses (although he supports it now), we can probably count on him, too. However, that is only four. In order for the language to have been stripped, the support of two other conferees would have been needed.

Unfortunately, until someone fesses up, we will never know who the other supporters were. Right now, admitting to this is pretty dangerous politically, since the bonuses are so wildly unpopular. Really any of the Democrats could have done it, given the Obama administration's current influence with Democratic members of Congress.

It is worth noting that at least three of the conferees, Reid, Baucus and Grassley, are now at the forefront of legislative efforts to get the bonuses back through an AIG-targeted tax. See Baucus and Grassley here, and Reid here. It is highly likely that at least one of those conferees supported stripping Dodd's language, and yet is now making heroic noise about getting the money back via a new tax. Some would call that hypocrisy, but the positive spin would be penance.
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12313

Mr.Hypocrite in the conference room with a vote.

[dkf]

1. I thought Treasury directed this action?

Looks like they did it as a favor to the Administration.

Really, this is Obama's baby. I think he is going to have to explain it. I would be curious to know if there is a lack of communication between Treasury and the rest of the Administration due to understaffing. I have a bad feeling that lack of personnel is really hurting in ways we haven't seen yet.

[ClarkUSA]

2. Dodd lied. He did it. Confessed on CNN to Wolf Blitzer yesterday. Apologized today to Dana Bash.

Check CNN transcripts for the complete exchanges, which I saw live. Dodd is a putz. He's playing the blame game and
saying some unnamed Treasury person told him to do it but that doesn't excuse his lying about doing it himself.

[dkf]

3. Dodd did it at the request of Treasury.

He said so explicitly.

[ClarkUSA]

4. So what? He said he didn't do it, too, and that was a lie. The blame game is typical CYA.

[dkf]

6. Well it wasn't what he wanted to do, so I understand what he was getting at.

Thing is you can't blame him. It goes back to the Administration.

[ClarkUSA]

10. I was answering the OP's question. Dodd lied. There's no excuse for it.

He's just made his Senate re-election that much harder. His poll numbers don't look good as it is.

[dkf]

11. And like I said...he got caught trying to cover for the administration.

I wish they would have simply fessed up and explained it and taken responsibility instead of letting Dodd hang for it.

[ClarkUSA]

12. That's your excuse for him. There's nothing to back you up. FACT: Dodd lied and it was wrong.

He apologized for it; he knew he did wrong so why can't you? :shrug:

[dkf]

13. Dodd said it was an Administration request on MSNBC. I heard him.

[ClarkUSA]

14. Then why did Dodd lie and say he didn't do it the day before on a live CNN interview?

He should have told the truth right off the bat. He lied to cover his ass and then he got caught and told the truth.
Stop trying to exonerate his lying by blaming Team O. He could've told the truth from the beginning. I guess he's
no George Washington.

[dkf]

15. Yeah he should have. And given the person's name and if Obama knew about it or asked personally.

I hope it wasn't Geithner. That could be the nail in his coffin.

[ClarkUSA]

16. Agreed. He shot himself in the foot. His re-election will be tricky enough as it is.

As for Geithner, he's only been in the job for a few weeks so I am not going to scapegoat him. The big picture is fixing the economy
so I'm not getting too worked up over this latest bonus outrage, although I'm sure Team O is making sure that bailout $$ will not
be misused again, either by taxing the bonuses of bailout entities or asking for the monies back from said companies. Already, the
administration's tough guidelines has caused GM and other corporations to back off from their panhandling. Hope that continues.

[dkf]

17. Yeah it is ironic that unpopular Dodd is trying to cover for popular Obama.

hahaha. Apparently no one cares about AIG anyway. Only me.

[ClarkUSA]

18. Dodd was trying to cover his own ass, not President Obama's. He never spoke to Barack or Geithner.

"Dodd said he did not speak to high-ranking administration officials and the change came after his staff spoke with staffers
from Treasury."

He didn't even bother to speak to President Obama about it, so there goes your hypothesis.

There's plenty of outrage, but it's irrelevant to the big picture. The bonuses make up about 1% of AIG's bailout.
It's another media clusterfuck that far too many people are willing to use to trash Team O the way the did during
the primaries. President Obama's approval numbers are holding fairly steady, so it appears that most Americans
aren't falling for the blame game.

[dkf]

19. You can't know what motivates a person, but I think he was

trying to cover for the administration. That clause wasn't his idea. If he had fessed up to that he would have been in the clear.

[ClarkUSA]

20. Dodd was trying to avoid taking post-MSM outrage responsibility for removing his own provision.

He thought he could get away with it. He underestimated the doggedness of media outrage whoredom. No way was he trying
to cover for the administration because he threw them under the bus as soon as his pathetic CYA attempt was blown. Now the
GOP is sharpening their knives and asking for an investigation based on Dodd's garbled response. Oy. What a cowardly fool
Dodd turned out to be.

"Dodd said he did not speak to high-ranking administration officials and the change came after his staff spoke with staffers
from Treasury."

Dodd didn't even bother to speak to President Obama about it, so there goes your hypothesis. He removed his own provision because
some low-level Treasury staffer called his Senate staff with a message. There was no follow-up on Dodd's part to discuss it with the
President or Geithner. Nothing, nada. Then when faced with the unexpected media outcry, Dodd blinked and the rest of history.

Epic fail.

[dkf]

7. Here is the money quote...

On Wednesday, a Treasury Department official confessed to CNN that the administration had pushed to have the bonus measure nixed, forcing Dodd's hand.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5287086

Maybe he first tried to deny it because he didn't want to rat out the Administration.

[Kalyke]

5. Somehow I doubt it was Waxman.

I mean, look at the guy's record. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would want to give bail-outers millions in bonuses.

[patrice]

8. Depending upon how someone with a vote calculates how the Vote is going to break, ultimately,

one could choose to strip the language in order to expose the bonuses outside of the committee, in a manner in which it would not be possible for the opposition to say

"Democrats do not honor CONTRACT LAW - THE BASIS OF ANY BUSINESS THAT'S DONE IN THE USA!!!"

For at least SOME of these players you need to Think Chess here.

[patrice]

9. Ever hear of Gaming Theory?