Dram in DC

I have been getting quite the chuckle following the drama between the White House, the Congress and AIG. AIG announces that (per their CONTRACTS but we will get to that later) they are paying out some $165 million in bonuses to employees. Now back in September (when the campaign was in full swing and the mortgage industry mess was just coming to light) Jazz and I mentioned on our weekly Blog Talk Radio show that if the Congress did not put "strings" into the bailout bills that this was going to happen. But apparently, Jazz and I must be smarter than the average Congresscritter, because they were shocked SHOCKED I TELL YOU to know that there was gambling going on in that casino bonus money going out. Now honestly, I don't think that is as much the case as it is the fact that Congress willing suspended their disbelief when it came to these bank bailouts...either that or they knew it was coming and were ok with it until the people got upset and then....

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) looks like he may be facing a fresh political firestorm.

Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision. .

“We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,” Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.

What could have caused Sen. Dodd to be so foolish? Could it be that he, like President Obama, had a financial incentive....

American International Group: Recipients

Top Recipients

Senate	Obama, Barack	$104,332
Senate	Dodd, Chris	$103,900
Senate	McCain, John	$59,499
Senate	Clinton, Hillary	$37,965
Senate	Baucus, Max	$24,750
Presidential	Romney, Mitt	$20,850
Senate	Biden, Joseph R Jr	$19,975

Note that AIG contributed to candidates from both parties - but numbers 1, 2 3 and 4 are telling aren't they?

Look, I may be a simple naive girl from the Midwest but even I knew that this was coming which is why I find the protestations of feigned outrage from Capital Hill to be so disturbing. Does Congress think we are all so stupid that we didn't know that this was coming? If so, maybe we aren't the stupid ones - because most of the folks on Main Street knew that this was coming.

Well, I'll give Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Dodd and company a little "inside" information....the next round of bonuses is coming.....

Fannie Mae, the federally run mortgage finance giant, plans to pay four top executives $1 million or more in retention bonuses.

The bonus plan prompted the company's federal regulator to defend compensation decisions the government made when it took over Fannie Mae in September. It comes as American International Group faces public outrage over $165 million in bonuses it awarded last week.

Fannie Mae, which suffered $59 billion in losses last year, has requested $15 billion in taxpayer assistance and has said it expects to need plenty more.

Rest assured, this is only the beginning......aren't you glad we bailed all of these companies out?