Biden, Chris Dodd, 'Disrespect a Waitress'

Infamous ‘Waitress Sandwich’ Senator Chris Dodd Joins Biden’s VP Search Committeehttps://t.co/TDzwtLyRK4

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 15, 2021

So sleazy.

Chris Abele Wins

Unbelievable.

Abele defeats Stone for Milwaukee County exec

Milwaukee County voters, what is wrong with you?

CHRIS ABELE:

OWI

Fireworks

Tax Lien

Parking Tickets

Higher taxes.

God help Milwaukee County.

Will Abele celebrate with fireworks tonight?
________________

Chris Abele doesn't write his own Tweets, at least not this one.

Thanks to our supporters 4 fighting 2 bring change 2 MKE County & thank u 2 Jeff Stone 4 running a good race. Tomorrow we get to work!

He was being interviewed LIVE on TV when this was posted.

Richard Blumenthal: Liar

UPDATE, February 10, 2011: Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) Gets Caught Lying Again, Claims He Clerked on Roe v. Wade
_______________

Richard Blumenthal, DEMOCRAT, is running for the U.S. Senate.

Although it's not unusual for candidates to distort the truth, what Blumenthal has done is inexcusable.

He lied about his military service.

Hey, Dan Rather! Hey, Mary Mapes! 60 Minutes! Here's a story that could impact the outcome of an election and it's not based on fraudulent documents.

From the New York Times:

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.

In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.

...[W]hat is striking about Mr. Blumenthal’s record is the contrast between the many steps he took that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, and the misleading way he often speaks about that period of his life now, especially when he is speaking at veterans’ ceremonies or other patriotic events.

Sometimes his remarks have been plainly untrue, as in his speech to the group in Norwalk. At other times, he has used more ambiguous language, but the impression left on audiences can be similar.

In an interview on Monday, the attorney general said that he had misspoken about his service during the Norwalk event and might have misspoken on other occasions. “My intention has always been to be completely clear and accurate and straightforward, out of respect to the veterans who served in Vietnam,” he said.

This is really disgraceful. It's so dishonest.

Blumenthal has lied about more than being in Vietnam.

...On a less serious matter, another flattering but untrue description of Mr. Blumenthal’s history has appeared in profiles about him. In two largely favorable profiles, the Slate article and a magazine article in The Hartford Courant in 2004 with which he cooperated, Mr. Blumenthal is described prominently as having served as captain of the swim team at Harvard. Records at the college show that he was never on the team.

Mr. Blumenthal said he did not provide the information to reporters, was unsure how it got into circulation and was “astonished” when he saw it in print.

Captain of the swim team?

Oh, good grief.

The Democrats were counting on Blumenthal to be the candidate to fill the Senate seat occupied by the retiring Chris Dodd.

Without question, Blumenthal doesn't deserve the honor of being elected.

He should drop out of the race immediately.

It's impossible to say you were in Vietnam when you weren't. That's not a slip of the tongue or a mangled word. It's no "e-pants-ipation."

You don't lie about being in the Vietnam War. Period.
__________________

CNN video.

Chris Dodd Retires

Buh-bye, Chris Dodd. It's over. He's going to fade away.

From Politico:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) plans to announce Wednesday that he will retire from the Senate at the end of the year, capping a 30-year career where he rose to become one of the chamber's most influential members, several Democratic sources told POLITICO Tuesday night.

Dodd’s decision to retire is, at first glance, a blessing to Senate Democrats who worried they would have trouble holding the seat with the embattled senator in the race. Now Democrats expect that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will run in Dodd’s place, giving the party a stronger nominee in a race that was widely believed to be a toss-up.

The Democrats are really running scared.

In addition to Dodd being forced into "choosing" retirement, Sen. Byron Dorgan is also being forced out of the Senate.

Is this the beginning of a 2010 election bloodbath for the Dems?

Russ Feingold probably doesn't feel threatened at all in terms of his personal political future. The Republicans STILL don't have a candidate.

How can Wisconsin Republicans be wasting this great opportunity?

Get it together.

Paranormal TAXivity

Vote for the scariest Democrat in Washington.

Harry "The Vaporizer" Reid

Chris "Sweetheart Mortages" Dodd

Nancy "Public Option" Pelosi

Arlen "The Chameleon" Specter

SPOOKY!

Michael Moore and Jay Leno: Moore Sings, Capitalism Sucks

Michael Moore was a guest on The Jay Leno Show last night. He was there to hawk his new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story.

During Leno's monologue, he mentioned Moore's latest project.

JAY LENO: We have Michael Moore, the filmmaker, on the show tonight. He has a... (Cheers and applause) You know, he's got a... I think this is his best film yet. It's a new movie called Capitalism: A Love Story. And in the movie he says capitalism is evil. You know what he doesn't say? Tickets are 12 bucks. Popcorn is 8 bucks. Coke is 6 bucks. JuJuBes 9 bucks.

That was as entertaining as things would get. When it came time for Leno to interview Moore, there was no humor. It was all serious. Not exactly the comedy that NBC has been promising from Leno. This Leftist crap isn't what NBC had been hyping for months.

It was excruciatingly painful to watch.

Video.

Transcript

JAY LENO: The film is called Capitalism: A Love Story.

MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, it's Capitalism: A Love Story. The love refers to how the wealthy love their money except this has a new twist. They not only love their money now, they love our money.

LENO: Right.

MOORE: And they want our money.

LENO: Right, right.

MOORE: So, uh...

LENO: Well, it's interesting in the film. You say capitalism is evil. I think greed is evil, but I think capitalism is OK as long as you, I mean, moderation in all things. I mean, uh, explain.

MOORE: Yeah, well, capitalism, capitalism is actually legalized greed. Uh, it's, it's, it... There's nothing wrong with people earning money, doing well, starting a business, selling shoes. That's not what I'm talking about here.

We're at a point now, Jay, in this country where the richest one percent, the very top one percent, have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

LENO: Really? Wow.

MOORE: That's insane. We live in a democracy. We're supposed to have like fairness and equality. And, you know, when you have a pie on the table, you know, something you and I know something about.

LENO: Right. We've both had pie on the table.

MOORE: But when you have a pie on the table, there's ten slices, and one guy at the table says, 'Nine of those slices are mine...

LENO: Right.

MOORE: And the other nine of you, you can fight over the last slice,' I mean, that's essentially the kind of economy we have now.

LENO: Well, the one thing I like about this film, the main thing was, it's completely nonpartisan. Other people have had opinions, 'Oh, he's a liberal, he's doing this,' but you go after both the Democrats and the Republicans, I think, equally in this film. Maybe you've hit the Democrats a little bit harder because they get into that culture of... they're all Wall Street guys that run everything now. That didn't used to be the way it was, was it?

MOORE: It didn't used to be that way, and now both parties take huge sums of money from Wall Street, from all corporations. They've really bought both of our parties. And it was funny, you know, they tended to skew Republican when they hand out their money, but as soon as it looked like Barack Obama might win then they all of a sudden go, 'Whoa, wait a minute.' And they started throwing money at him during the campaign, hoping, you know, that he'll do their bidding once he gets into office.

LENO: Now it's one year since Lehman Brothers collapsed. We've had all, OK, we've handed out... Is Wall Street any better? Have they learned anything?

MOORE: No, not at all. It's, it's probably worse. They're still doing these exotic derivatives. They're now trying to do it with life insurance. They've got all these crazy schemes. I mean, that's what I'm saying about capitalism, it's like a beast. And no matter how many strings or ropes you try and tie it down with that beast just wants more and more money. And it will go anywhere. It will try to gobble up as much as it can. The word 'enough' is the dirtiest word in capitalism, 'cuz there's no such thing as enough with these guys. And we haven't stopped them. We haven't passed the regulations that President Obama has suggested. I mean, I think he's really on top of this. And he said yesterday, he told Wall Street, 'That's it, boys. No more free ATM machine at the U.S. Department of Treasury.' And I think that's something we all support, right? I mean, this is like, uh...

(Applause)

LENO: Now is reform possible? Is reform possible?

MOORE: Well, I, I don't, you know, a hundred years ago when there was child labor, they said, you know, 'Can we reform child labor? Can we just regulate it, like if the factories were safer and the kids go to school, we can still have 12-year-olds working in the factory, right?

LENO: Right.

MOORE: No, not right. It's wrong. Some things are just wrong. And this capitalist economic system that we have, it might have been right at one point, it's not right now. And I don't think we're ever gonna put the genie back in the bottle. So we need to come up with something new to replace it. And I'm not talking about... This isn't a debate between capitalism versus socialism.

LENO: Right.

MOORE: I'm actually suggesting go back to our roots of this country, demcracy. What if we had an economy that you and I had a say in? Right now, we all don't have much of a say in this economy. What if we applied our democratic principles and said, 'We, the people, have a right to determine how this economy is run.' I think we'd be in much better shape than what we're going through right now.

(Applause)

LENO: Well, you have a fascinating point. Uh... (Applause) the thing that amazes me about this film, you must have finished it like last week, 'cuz it goes right up until just like a month or so ago.

MOORE: I finished it two weeks ago.

LENO: And this is something that went right by me, and I, maybe other people missed it, I'm not the brightest guy when it comes to financial things, but when we were going through this bailout, this $700 billion, people wrote to their congressmen, en masse, and said, 'Vote against this.' It was voted down and then what happened? Within a matter of days...

MOORE: Within days, Henry Paulson, the secretary of the treasury, and all his Goldman Sachs buddies, that you referred to in your monologue, with their billions of dollars and their million dollar bonuses, they went up to Capitol Hill and just started dishing out this little treat and that little treat to various congressmen.

LENO: Democrats and Republicans.

MOORE: Democrats and Republicans, especially, um, a certain Democratic chairman of the banking and finance committee, Sen. Dodd...

LENO: Chris Dodd.

MOORE: ...who, as I point out in the film, I have an exclusive interview with the VIP loan manager at Countrywide Loans, the largest mortgage company in the country, was giving sweetheart loans to Sen. Dodd, where he didn't have to pay fees. They did away with the paperwork for him. He got all things the average person couldn't get. And he's supposed to be regulating Countrywide and all these mortgage companies. So, the film really, I think people are going to be surprised.

LENO: I was very surprised.

MOORE: You're going to see things you haven't seen.

LENO: I was stunned by it, and I think it is the most fair film. You know, you've been accused of ambushing people and this type of stuff in the past, and there's none of that.

MOORE: And rightly so.

LENO: Everybody that talks to you wants to talk to you.

MOORE: Yes.

LENO: And that's what amazed me.

MOORE: I think that's because people are really together on this issue.

Leno didn't really challenge anything Moore said. He just kept saying, "right, right."

Moore talks about a large percent of wealth being in the hands of a few, but he doesn't mention that those people pay the overwhelming percent of all taxes that fund the government.

He says that we don't have a say in how the economy works. What a load!

This was all anti-capitalism drivel, typical fringe Leftist stuff.

Where is the comedy, Jay?

After a commercial break, Moore was back to earn the plug for his movie.

He sang.

Video.

Yes, Moore sang a couple of verses of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" a cappella.

His performance was totally serious, which made it very uncomfortable.



Oh, my God.

When Moore finished, Leno said that he sang like Richard Nixon.

Then, they showed a clip from the film.

I could not believe how much time Leno devoted to Moore, on only his second prime time show.

This was an infomercial, and a very boring one. Castro would have loved it.

Moore wants a revolution. Capitalism is evil.

If he really feels that way, I don't think he should profit from any of his films. Spread the wealth around.

Where's my cut of the box office receipts?

Gimme.

Obama: 30 Million Uninsured, 47 Million?

I don't know what happened since Obama's news conference on July 22, 2009, but according to Obama's own words, 17 million Americans have health insurance now that didn't then.

What progress!

Congress didn't act, no legislation was passed, and yet 17 million uninsured Americans somehow picked up health care coverage.

On July 22, before Obama took questions during his prime time news conference, he said this in his opening remarks:

This is not just about the 47 million AMERICANS who have no health insurance. Reform is about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick, or lose their job, or change their job. It's about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage because it became too expensive. And it's about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.

Of course, those of us paying attention knew that Obama was dramatically inflating the number of uninsured Americans.

From CNSNews, July 22, 2009:

In a nationally televised primetime press conference tonight, President Barack Obama falsely claimed there are 47 million Americans without health insurance.

This inflated claim of the number of uninsured Americans was even higher than the false claim of 46 million uninsured Americans that the president’s Council of Economic Advisers made last month.

The Census Bureau says that there are only 35.92 million uninsured Americans and that this number includes 9.1 million people who earn more than $75,000 a year and simply choose not to purchase insurance.

...On June 2, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report entitled, “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform.” The report falsely claimed that there were 46 million Americans who lacked health insurance--as opposed to the 47 million claimed by the president tonight.

“Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance,” said the CEA report.

...The president cited no source for his claim that there are 47 million uninsured Americans.

Since the White House first falsely claimed in June that there were 46 million uninsured Americans, CNSNews.com has reported on the correct Census Bureau figure on multiple occasions. Radio show host Mark Levin has also repeatedly pointed out the discrepancy between the White House claim of 46 million uninsured Americans and the Census Bureau’s assertion that almost 10 million of that number are not Americans but foreigners who happened to be present in the United States in 2007.

This AP article by Erica Werner, August 5, 2009, tackles the issue of how many Americans are uninsured.

It's a central goal of the president's plan: Extending health care coverage to the millions of Americans who lack it. Question is, just how many million are uninsured?

The answer could make a huge difference in the billions of dollars it will cost to remake the national system.

Barack Obama frequently cites last year's Census Bureau number of 46 million people with no health insurance. But some experts argue that figure is off by tens of millions — in one direction or the other.

The recession's continuing toll on jobs, a tendency to undercount people on Medicaid and other factors make it hard to come up with an exact number. And the most widely accepted range — 40 million to 50 million — includes some 10 million non-citizens, a detail that's generally overlooked when Obama and others talk about "uninsured Americans."

New Census Bureau figures expected next month could scramble the equation, adding billions in costs if the numbers come in higher than expected, or reducing costs if the numbers are lower.

There could be serious implications "if we all of a sudden found that instead of 45 million uninsured there are 35 million," said Michael O'Grady, a senior fellow at the University of Chicago's health policy and evaluation department and a former assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services.

On June 21, 2009, Chris Dodd rounded up the 46 or 47 million, saying "almost 50 million uninsured." The lib media also incorporated the 50 million number in their reports.

It's odd that after months and months and months of hearing that there are 45-50 million uninsured Americans, we suddenly hear that number has plunged.

Last night, Obama, without explanation, talked about 30 million Americans without health insurance, rather than the 47 million figure he used in July.

Video.

Transcript

OBAMA: Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or too expensive to cover.

We are the only democracy, the only advanced democracy on Earth – the only wealthy nation – that allows such hardship for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.

FRANK LUNTZ, pollster: 'There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.'

Up until tonight, it was always 47 million. But what they realized was that they were defending health care coverage, government money, your taxpayer dollars, going to illegal immigrants that they realized that they had to take them out of the pool. And so tonight, the number's no longer 47. It's now 30.

You'd think Obama would explain his new numbers, especially since his speech was touted as being heavy on specifics.

This change certainly makes Obama and the Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media look dishonest.

Last night, Obama said, "The time for games has passed." Apparently, the time for number games most definitely has not passed.

__________________

In June 2009, Larry Elder broke down the numbers of "uninsured Americans."

__________________

More numbers: Census: Uninsured rises to 46.3 million

Chris Dodd and the Amendment

Chris Dodd is squirming as liars do, and Dodd is a liar.

Yesterday:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, who originally proposed the executive compensation provision, said he did not include the exemption clause, which said new rules "shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009."

In an interview with CNN, Dodd denied inserting that exemption at the 11th hour, and insisted he doesn't know how it got there.

"When I wrote the language there was no such language like that," Dodd told CNN Tuesday.

LIAR.

Dodd was lying, flat-out lying.

It wasn't even a Bill Clinton sort of "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" lie.

Dodd's was a total, clear lie.

This evening:

Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN’s Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer Wednesday that he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses.

Watch Dodd admit that he's a liar. Of course, he doesn't actually say he lied yesterday, but that is what he's saying.



More video:


______________

Dodd issued this statement Wednesday evening:

“I’m the one who has led the fight against excessive executive compensation, often over the objections of many. I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment but I did so at the request of Administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG. Let me be clear – I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week.

“Reports that I changed my position on this issue are simply untrue. I answered a question by CNN last night regarding whether or not a specific date was aimed at protecting AIG. When I saw that my comments had been misconstrued, I felt it was important to set the record straight – that this had nothing to do with AIG.

“Fortunately, we wrote this amendment in a way that allows the Treasury Department to go back and review these bonus contracts and seek to recover the money for taxpayers. Again, I have led the fight to curb excessive executive compensation, and will continue to do so.”

Dodd is spinning feverishly.

He originally denied having anything at all to do with the amendment.

Moreover, the language of his amendment has ramifications for other institutions that accepted bailout money. Its impact is far-reaching.

AIG per se wasn't the issue. The issue was his involvement with the amendment.

Obama, Geithner, and "Complete Confidence"

UPDATE: Geithner Caves on AIG Bonuses, Defends Liddy
_______________

This AIG thing is really turning into a mess for the Democrats.

Questions about Barack Obama's confidence in Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner are swirling.

From the New York Times:

The White House and Treasury have been besieged by questions about why Mr. Geithner did not know sooner about the bonus payments due this month, and whether he could have done more to stop them, prompting White House officials to assert President Obama’s continued confidence in Mr. Geithner.

“He more than has the president’s complete confidence,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. As angry as the president is at the news about A.I.G., which he learned Thursday, Mr. Emanuel said, “his main priority is getting the financial system stabilized, and he believes this is a big distraction in that effort.”

Yeah. Incompetence often is a big distraction, Rahm.

From an AP analysis, written by Laurie Kellman:

"The president has complete confidence" in Geithner, [White House press secretary Robert] Gibbs said.

Both Emanuel and Gibbs used "complete confidence." What a coincidence!

Is Obama satisfied that Geithner informed him of the impending bonus payments in a timely fashion?

"Yes, the president is satisfied," Gibbs replied.

Those, of course, are statements that wouldn't need to be made if Geithner's status were clear. Not just a president's confidence, but his "complete confidence" can be a well-worn political signal that the subject should start circulating a resume.

AIG is the demonized insurance giant now 80 percent owned by the government after getting $170 billion in federal bailout funds to pay money it owed to U.S. and foreign banks. Geithner told senior White House officials about the bonuses last Thursday and they in turn told Obama the same day, according to a timetable provided by the White House.

Geithner sent a flurry of letters to lawmakers Tuesday night on measures he's taking—including bringing in Attorney General Eric Holder—to try to recover as much of the bonuses as possible.

For the time being, Geithner, formerly president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, remains a key player in the gargantuan task of slowing the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

But his future could soon be as murky as the economy's. His short tenure has been shaky at a time when the new president and the Democratic-led Congress are trying to project confidence to the markets and the nation.

When asked, Democrats issued statements of support for Geithner that ranged from concise to vague, but none called for his resignation.

Resignation?

It seems the lib media are frustrated with Geithner. First, they had to excuse his tax evasion. But they were sold on his brilliance and they wanted to give Obama anyone he wanted. Now, Geithner is revealed to be clueless and sloppy and not at all the man they made him out to be.

Regarding this AIG mess, Mark Levin made an interesting point on his radio show Tuesday. He said that this is a Democrat scandal.

After playing clips of Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, and Barney Frank criticizing AIG and calling for the return of the bonuses, Levin noted that they all supported and voted for the stimulus bill that includes Chris Dodd's amendment assuring the bonuses would be paid.

The lib media are missing in action. They have failed to blame Dodd for sticking this amendment in the stimulus bill. The lib media aren't noting the utter hypocrisy of Dodd and other Dems now running around threatening to enact a law to tax the bonuses in order to regain the money if it's not returned to the government voluntarily.

The bonuses were paid because they were protected under the stimulus bill.

Levin points out that not a single Republican House member voted for the bill. Nearly all Dem House members voted for it. Every Senate single Dem voted for it and three Republicans -- Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins. It was overwhelmingly a Dem creation.

The Dems voted to award the AIG bonuses.

Most importantly, Barack Obama signed the bill. HE SIGNED IT. He signed it with great fanfare in Denver.

Weird that Obama's outraged over the bill that he insisted had to be passed so quickly.

He should be held accountable for failing to veto it. It's that simple.

The bonuses account for just 1/1000 of the bailout, yet they are the lightning rod du jour. Naturally, the Democrats are exploiting that, waging class warfare, and feigning outrage because they see it as a politically smart move.

But the fact is this AIG bonus thing is their baby.

In terms of accountability, remember that Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold both voted for the stimulus bill. They voted FOR the AIG bonuses.

The Dems have been in power for just two months and look how royally they've managed to screw up already.

Quite an accomplishment.
______________

Read Lawrence Kudlow: The AIG Outrage

[A]s for the $165 million or so in AIG bonus payments, the Obama administration -- including the president, Treasury man Tim Geithner, and economic adviser Larry Summers -- knew all about them many months ago. They were undoubtedly informed of this during the White House transition.

So there’s no big surprise. Nobody should be shocked. But President Obama is doing his best play-acting ever. He knows full well that the nationwide outcry against federal bailouts and takeovers is only going to get worse on his watch. His poll numbers are already falling, and this AIG episode is going to pull them down more.

...And what is Treasury man Geithner’s role in all this? He appears to be the biggest bungler in what has become a massive bungling. My CNBC friend and colleague Charlie Gasparino thinks Geithner can’t survive this. I am inclined to agree.

Chuck Schumer Warns AIG Bonus Recipients

Chuck Schumer, on the floor of the Senate, is talking like a street thug.

VIDEO.

His colleagues are joining him in demanding that legal contracts be disregarded. They are promising that bonuses protected under the law, thanks to an amendment added by Chris Dodd to the recently passed stimulus bill, will be stripped from their recipients.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats vowed Tuesday to all but strip AIG executives of their $165 million in bonuses, as expressions of outrage swelled in Congress over eye-catching extra income for employees of a firm that has received billions in taxpayer bailout funds.

"Recipients of these bonuses will not be able to keep all of their money," declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in an unusually strong threat delivered on the Senate floor.

"If you don't return it on your own we will do it for you," said Chuck Schumer of New York.

The bonuses were paid legally, part of a program that had been disclosed in advance in filings that American International Group Inc. made with the government.

Senate Democrats threatened to tax the bonuses at up to 91 percent through narrowly written legislation, said Schumer, if AIG does not return the money voluntarily. Republicans have said President Barack Obama should have done more to prevent the executives from accepting the bonuses in the first place.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus asked, "What is the highest excise tax we can impose that will stand up in court? Let's find out what it is."

In the House, Reps. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, introduced a bill that would that would tax at 100 percent bonuses above $100,000 paid by companies that have received federal bailout money.

...New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he has issued subpoenas for the names of AIG employees given bonuses despite their possible roles in its near-collapse. Cuomo said his office will investigate whether the bonus payments are fraudulent under state law because they were promised when the company knew it wouldn't have the money to cover them. AIG reported this month that it lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history, and it has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue.

This is ridiculous. It's a witch hunt.

Are the salaries that members of Congress accept fraudulent because the government doesn't have the money to cover them?

These people need to take a deep cleansing breath and think about what they're saying.

These threats, this thug mentality, is disturbing.

More from Schumer, USA Today:

Congress began a push Tuesday to get back some of the $165 million that insurance giant AIG paid to executives who drove the company into financial ruin before it was rescued by a government bailout.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee will issue a proposal in the next day or so that would require American International Group to return to the government at least a portion of the bonuses paid out last week. And Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed legislation Tuesday.

"This is disgraceful, this is unacceptable and this is an offense to millions of hard working Americans whose tax dollars are the only reason AIG continues to exist," Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, said of the bonuses. "We intend to do everything in our power to prevent those payments from being paid and recoup the money that has already been paid."

Schumer said he wrote a letter to AIG chief Edward Liddy urging him to tell his employees to voluntarily return the bonus money. Otherwise, Schumer said, Congress will pass legislation that would tax the bonus money at such a high rate that the AIG employees will be forced to pay it back through taxes.

"If you don't return it on your own we will do it for you," Schumer said.

Thug.

Here's more from Thug Schumer:

"If Mr. Liddy does nothing we will act and we will take this money back and return it to its rightful owners the taxpayers," Schumer warned. "So for those of you who are getting these bonuses, be forewarned -- you will not be getting to keep them."

We should all be "forewarned."

What the Dems giveth, the Dems taketh away.

Chris Dodd and Campaign Donations from AIG

Chris Dodd should be cowering in a corner rather than shooting off his mouth about AIG.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9266, 0.1465, 18.78%) 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.

Dodd's hypocrisy is stunning.

It's like Tim Geithner.

The very people responsible for the AIG bailout and the bonuses are the ones expressing their outrage and demanding that their own work be undone.

Dodd got more campaign money from AIG than anyone during the 2008 election.

He added an amendment to the stimulus bill to protect their bonuses.

It's law. Now he wants it rescinded?

Talk about political posturing!

Censored Chris Dodd Interview WELI-AM

Link:

More.

Tom Scott conducted the interview. WELI killed it. Now you can hear it.

Scott, one of Connecticut’s leading conservative voices of the past three decades, was the last local on-air voice at WELI-AM, once a fully-staffed Greater New Haven news station turned into a right-wing talk radio syndication outlet by owner Clear Channel Communications.

Scott hosted a weekday 5 to 7 p.m. drive-time talk show until Oct. 29. That was the day he taped a combative interview with U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.

...Watching the TV news monitors in the WELI newsroom, Tom Scott, a former state senator and Congressional and gubernatorial candidate, had grown frustrated that reporters seemed to be going easy on Dodd. So he savored the chance to push Dodd on why, for instance, he won’t release the documents connected to his personal Countrywide loans.

The result was riveting radio. But WELI’s listeners never got to hear it.

...Asked why the interview never ran, Todd Thomas, Clear Channel’s regional operations manager, said, “That’s something that happened behind closed doors.” He declined to comment further.

Chris Dodd and Laser Cats

The strangest thing about the latest installment of Laser Cats on Saturday Night Live was Chris Dodd's appearance.

Chris Dodd? Why?

Truly bizarre.

Chris Dodd on Obama's Bandwagon

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut plans to endorse former presidential rival Barack Obama.

Dodd will endorse his colleague, a senator from Illinois, in Cleveland on Tuesday, according to a Democratic official close to Dodd who requested anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.

Dodd's support, coupled with his liberal credentials, could provide a boost for Obama as major contests near in big states such as Ohio and Texas on March 4. Obama has won some key Democratic endorsements in recent weeks, including Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a close friend of Dodd.

Yes, Dodd is a very close friend of Ted Kennedy.

Think back to the infamous "waitress sandwich" that he and Teddy engaged in "at La Brasserie in 1985, while their dates were in the bathroom."

Will Dodd's endorsement matter?

It might help Hillary. Some women might not appreciate the old boys' club rallying behind Obama.

Christopher Dodd and Conan O'Brien

On Thursday, Presidential candidate Christopher Dodd was a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

The interview began with a little chitchat.

O'Brien commented on Dodd's hair, saying that a candidate needs to have good hair. Dodd said his hair was red until George W. Bush took office.

HAHA. That's really hilarious.

Dodd mentioned Fred Thompson's announcement to run for president on Jay Leno's show. He said that he wanted to make some news, too. Dodd said, "Kenny Chesney is my vice presidential candidate."

HAHA. What a funny guy!

Why Chesney?

Kenny Chesney was the musical guest on the show and Dodd was pandering to the fans in the audience.


O'Brien talked about Dodd's presidential bid. Dodd says he feels good about where his campaign is. "We're in good shape."

Huh?

On Iraq, Dodd made reference to a three state configuration of some sort as a solution to the violence.

But the real purpose for Dodd's appearance, I think, was to plug his new book, Letters from Nuremberg. It's a volume of letters that his father, a prosecutor at Nuremberg, wrote to his mother during the Nazi war criminals' trials.

When he talked about the book, the audience took a snooze.

Dodd was connecting Nuremberg with what's happening in the world today, "giving up the rule of law" in the War on Terror.

He was yapping about our nation needing to regain the moral highground, blah, blah, blah.

Dodd certainly didn't seem like a presidential candidate. Whenever I see him, I think of the infamous "waitress sandwich" that he and Ted Kennedy engaged in "at La Brasserie in 1985, while their dates were in the bathroom."

No gravitas.
___________________________

This is mildly interesting. I didn't get the feeling that Democrat O'Brien was a supporter of Chris Dodd.

He was nice, but he wasn't fawning over the senator or anything like that.

It turns out that O'Brien has contributed to Dodd's campaigns.

12/19/97 -- $500 primary

05/19/04 -- $500 general

It doesn't appear that O'Brien has contributed to Dodd's '08 presidential campaign.

Democrat Presidential Candidates Debate

On Thursday night, Democrat presidential wannabes participated in the first official debate of Election 2008.

It wasn't really a debate. It was more like an interview with podiums.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- Democratic presidential hopefuls flashed their anti-war credentials Thursday night, heaping criticism on President Bush's Iraq policy in the first debate of the 2008 campaign.

"The first day I would get us out of Iraq by diplomacy," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, one of eight rivals on the debate stage.

"The first day"?

Is Richardson kidding?

Would January 20, 2009 count as his "first day" as president if elected?

Does he mean January 21, which would be his first full day?

In any event, Richardson is making a campaign promise that he can't keep.

That statement sounds like something a 5th grader would write -- "What I would do if I were president."

Richardson was far from the only candidate to make stupid comments.

"If this president does not get us out of Iraq, when I am president, I will," pledged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

The question is when. When would Hillary get us out of Iraq? After we win or in time to lose? In her second term?

She's not very specific. It's sort of like when Bill Clinton said that he wasn't alone with Monica Lewinsky. Hillary parses her words, too.

Does the country really want the old Clinton song and dance routine?

I know I don't.

But Clinton found herself on the receiving end of criticism moments later when former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said she or anyone else who voted to authorize the war should "search their conscience."

Edwards, in the Senate at the time, also cast his vote for the invasion, but he has since apologized for it.

I don't get why Edwards and his supporters make such a big deal about his apology for voting for the war.

What's his apology for? Is he apologizing for poor judgment? Is he apologizing for being unable to assess an important issue? Is he really saying that he's sorry he's unfit to make wise decisions?

Of the eight foes participating in the debate at South Carolina State University, four voted earlier in the day to support legislation that cleared Congress and requires the beginning of a troop withdrawal by Oct. 1. The legislation sets a goal of a complete withdrawal by April 1, 2008.

"We are one signature away from ending this war," said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. He said if Bush won't change his mind about vetoing the bill, Democrats need to work on rounding up enough Republican votes to override him.

In addition to Obama and Clinton, Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut also cast votes in favor of the legislation.

Every Dem senator voted for surrender.

Every Dem senator voted to help our enemies by pinpointing an official date to mark U.S. defeat in Iraq.

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio also participated in the debate, lesser-funded contenders who seemed most eager to challenge their rivals.

Of course, they're more eager to challenge their rivals.

What do they have to lose? NOTHING.

This is funny:

While Iraq dominated the debate's early moments, Edwards was asked about having paid for a $400 haircut from campaign donations rather than from his own wallet.

"That was a mistake, which we remedied," he said. A wealthy former trial lawyer, he recalled once having gone to dinner at a restaurant as a young child and having to leave because his father could not afford the prices.

"I've not forgotten where I came from," he said.

Edwards deflects from putting $400 dollars of campaign donations into his hair by telling a lame story about having to leave a restaurant because daddy couldn't afford it.

Edwards may not have forgotten where he came from, but he sure has left it behind him and embraced a different, incredibly indulgent lifestyle.

He had to direct attention away from his hair. Anyone looking at him has to conclude that Edwards was ripped off for paying $400 for a haircut like that.

Asked about a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on so-called partial birth abortions, several of the contenders replied they would not impose a litmus test on their own nominees to the high court.

At the same time, they stressed their support for abortion rights, and said their appointees to the bench would reflect that.

I don't know if this is poor reporting or if the candidates dodged the question.

They were asked about the Supreme Court's partial birth abortion ruling.

If this AP account is accurate, none of them directly addressed the issue.

Asked about a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on so-called partial birth abortions, several of the contenders replied they would not impose a litmus test on their own nominees to the high court.

At the same time, they stressed their support for abortion rights, and said their appointees to the bench would reflect that.

And look at the way Obama spoke about Iran:

"I think it would be a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran," Obama replied. "But have no doubt, Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us and to the region."

I know the candidates were bound by strict time limits in this debate, but I get the feeling that even if he had more time to explain his position on Iran, he wouldn't need it. Does he have a plan for Iran?

Obama is so short on substance.

Not surprisingly, Bush's Iraq war policy found no supporters on the debate stage.

"I am proud that I opposed this war from the start," said Obama — a jab at those on the stage who voted to authorize the invasion.

"The president has a fundamentally flawed policy," said Biden. "The president should start off by not vetoing the legislation he says he will veto."

Dodd said Bush was pursuing a "failed policy."

Of course, there were no supporters of the President's Iraq policy.

The President is against surrendering Iraq to al Qaeda and other thugs.

All the Senate Dems on stage voted for America's defeat in Iraq. I wonder if John Edwards and Bill Richardson were jealous that they didn't get the chance to cast a vote to ensure victory for our enemies.

Overall, the debate was boring and predictable.

It was like a practice session, a warmup. The candidates weren't fighting to win. They may have thrown a few jabs here and there, but they weren't trying to land a knockout punch.

The debate was a waste of time and a waste of the jet fuel that it took to fly the candidates to South Carolina.