Sen. Chris Dodd for the first time Wednesday acknowledged he was instrumental in creating legislation that cleared the way for disgraced executives at taxpayer-rescued AIG to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. "My seat's safe. My voters have the IQ of carp and the instincts of lemmings. So, yeah. I dunnit and I'm glad. And I'll be back here come next election. Thhhhhp!"
The Connecticut Democrat also had to explain the receipt of more than $100,000 in campaign donations from AIG workers, including some from Leonid Shekhtman of Redding. Dodd vowed to return any tainted contributions from company executives, but that issue will likely be dwarfed by the huge AIG executive bonuses.
"I turn those back, they launder me some new ones, and I look virtuous. Whoopdy doo. This is all play-acting."
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, the senator said he had hoped an amendment he drafted to limit executive pay under last year's Targeted Asset Relief Program would have ruled out hefty bonuses. "I thought we covered that," Dodd said.
"But since we didn't, oh, well. It's only money. There's lotsa that where I sit."
His amendment passed the Senate, but was later relaxed by the conference panel that works out differences between versions of legislation passed in the two chambers of Congress.
"Whoopsy."
But later Wednesday, Dodd told CNN he agreed to change his amendment -- at the request of the Obama administration -- to ensure that previously enacted bonus contracts would be honored, despite billions of dollars that would go to bailout beneficiaries. "The alternative was losing the amendment entirely," he told the network. Administration officials feared that without the language the bailout measure would be deluged with lawsuits.
"Now we're just deluged with noise. Don't we sound ferocious? We're not actually doing anything, but we sound like we are."
Dodd's admission is likely to intensify Washington politicians' scramble to explain to an outraged public why they supported a bailout bill that granted giant bonuses to executives who had so mismanaged their companies.
"Feh! The outraged public has an attention span of six months at the outside. Next time I run, I'll tell 'em I 'led the fight against corruption' and they'll eat it up."