Sen. Dodd Announces Cancer Diagnosis, Defends Healthcare Plan (Video)

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) announces that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer about six weeks ago. Since it was caught early, it is treatable. "This is the slowest growing -- the best one to have," he says. "I'm very confident we're gonna come out of this well."

"I'm gonna be fine... We caught this early."

He also tells reporters that "I have a very good health care plan," which covers an annual physical, which revealed the diagnosis. "I'm fortunate as a member of Congress to have these benefits."

Finally, he announced that he's running for reelection, and joked that he'll be "a little leaner and meaner" in doing so.

Politics aside, I wish Sen. Dodd well in his recovery. And yes, luckily he had great insurance; the kind that "Obamacare" WILL NOT provide.

Chris Dodd: If We Need Teddy For A Vote, He'll Be Here (Video)

Senate Healthcare Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd talks about how happy his longtime friend Sen. Ted Kennedy, battling brain cancer, was when a healthcare bill was recently passed. Dodd says if they need another vote on a healthcare bill soon, "We may need him down here... He can be here."

What is this like a pinch hitter? With all due respect to Sen. Kennedy, can anyone explain why he yas yet to retire? Is he really serving the people of Massachusetts effectively by NOT being in Washington? Seriously! Certainly, I wish him well in his recovery, but isn't it time to focus on his health and allow someone else to step in who can serve Massachusetss?

Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo (and Friend of Sen. Chris Dodd) Faces SEC Lawsuit (Video)

The Wall Street Journal:

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has finally, sort of, kind of, ended 193 days of stonewalling about his sweetheart loans from former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. At least he did if you were a fast reader and were one of the few reporters he invited to his Hartford office yesterday to review -- but not copy or take -- more than 100 pages of documents related to his 2003 mortgage financings through Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program.


These are the files that Mr. Dodd pledged to make public after the news broke last summer that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee had received preferential treatment from Countrywide. At first, Mr. Dodd denied everything. Later, he conceded that he'd been given special treatment but thought it was "more of a courtesy."

Heck, we'd all love the kind of courtesy that would have saved Mr. Dodd $75,000 over the life of the two loans he refinanced to the tune of $800,000, according to an analysis by Portfolio magazine. The savings came from rock-bottom interest rates and a free "float-down" -- the right to borrow at a lower rate if interest rates fall before you've closed on the loan.

Bloomberg reports:

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo and two of his top deputies were sued by regulators for allegedly hiding the home lender’s deteriorating finances as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded.

While publicly reassuring investors about the quality of his loans, Mozilo issued “dire” internal warnings and engaged in insider trading accelerating stock sales to reap about $140 million, the agency said in the suit at Los Angeles federal court. In one e-mail, he described a “particularly profitable subprime product as ‘toxic.’” He also wrote that Countrywide was “flying blind” and had “no way” to determine the risks of some adjustable-rate mortgages, the SEC said.

Chris Dodd Is F*cked: Hannity Interviews CT Republican Senate Candidate Rob Simmons (Video)

Sean interviews Rob Simmons who is kicking Chris Dodd's ass for the 2010 CT Senate race by 50%-34%.

Chris Dodd is, thankfully, F*cked.

VIDEO: Chris Dodd Backtracks on AIG Amendment, Flip-Flops and Takes A Bullet For Geithner and Obama

Here's another freaking shock! No sh*t Chris! We all knew this! Thanks for fessing up, buddy! You freaking liar!

The funny part here is that Dodd claims the White House and Treasury Department forced him into this.

It's amazing that Dodd is taking a bullet for Tim Geithner who will probably be out of a job soon.

Libs fighting libs! This is great! It's all coming undone day by day!

Light the fire, open the marshmallows and watch Hopenchange burn!

The Communist News Network reports:

(CNN) -- Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN Wednesday that he was responsible for language added to the federal stimulus bill to make sure that already-existing contracts for bonuses at companies receiving federal bailout money were honored.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, appears on CNN's "The Situation Room" on Wednesday.

Dodd acknowledged his role in the change after a Treasury Department official told CNN the administration pushed for the language.

Both Dodd and the official, who asked not to be named, said it was because administration officials were afraid the government would face numerous lawsuits without the new language.

Dodd, a Democrat, told CNN's Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer that Obama administration officials pushed for the language to an amendment designed to limit bonuses and "golden parachutes" at those companies.

"The administration had expressed reservations," Dodd said. "They asked for modifications. The alternative was losing the amendment entirely."

On Tuesday, Dodd denied to CNN that he had anything to do with adding the language, which has been used by officials at bailed-out insurance giant AIG to justify paying millions of dollars in bonuses to executives after receiving federal money.

He said Wednesday that the "grandfather clause" language "seemed like innocent modifications" at the time. "I agreed reluctantly," Dodd said. "I was changing the amendment because others were insistent."

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

The Obama Administration Is Lying It's Ass Off About AIG Bonuses

I demand that someone be fired over the AIG bonus "scandal"!

And it's not anyone who works for the company.

Tim Geithner needs to go!

Team "O" wants us to believe that they did not know about the AIG bonuses until two weeks ago, March 5th.

This is all a big fat fu*king lie! Who are they trying to kid? Seriously!

This is preposterous that President Obama is blasting AIG and his "outrage" is creating chaos!

Chris Dodd knew about it when he secretly placed an amendment into the CRAPUulus Socialism Bill over a month ago? Did no one bother to read it?

Oh wait, they didn't! President Obama signed the bill! Are you telling me that neither he nor anyone on his staff read the bill?

Our President is either a bold-face liar or an incompetent fool! We have a President who is not understanding what he is signing? How dangerous is that!

The bonus contracts were written in March of last year and included a provision that required most bonuses to amount to 100 percent of their 2007 bonuses.

Are we to believe that this was not known when Tim Geithner brokered the AIG bailout last fall?

I don't care if Geithner is under-staffed or not! If you can't stand the heat, get out! This is bullsh*t and I'm sick of the incompetance of this administratio so far.

Jake Tapper reports on the AIG timetable:

Sources in the Obama administration Tuesday said that despite previous media reports administration officials did not know until a couple weeks ago that the officials of the controversial AIG Financial Product Division were set to receive $165 million in bonuses on March 13.It wasn't until Monday, March 5, 2009, administration sources told ABC News, that officials of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York informed officials of the Treasury Department of the full extent of the $165 million in bonuses pending for the controversial Financial Products Subsidiary.

This was three days after the Obama administration had already announced a new commitment of an additional $30 billion for AIG.Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was alerted last Tuesday, March 10; he phoned AIG CEO Edward Liddy on Wednesday evening, March 11, to protest the bonuses, sources told ABC News.

On Thursday, March 12, Secretary Geithner informed a senior White House official about the controversy, aides passed the information on to President Obama later in the day.

How the Obama administration was caught flat-footed by this controversy dates back to last Fall, when the New York Federal Reserve Bank -- then run by Geithner -- stepped in to give AIG a high-interest loan for $85 billion to help prevent the company from going under -- which Lehman Brothers was doing at the time. As part of the deal, AIG CEO Hank Greenberg was replaced by the new CEO, Liddy.In late October, the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program passed Congress, which includes rules about executive compensation but nothing about retention bonuses.

In November, the Fed and Treasury Department soon began pumping more money into AIG -- $40 billion, to take down the $85 billion credit facility set up by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

At this point, an Obama administration official says, Treasury officials generally became aware that AIG had put retention programs in place, but whom they were for and the extent of them were unknown. The New York Fed began studying the compensation policies on the books -- while also making efforts to save banks and rescue the economy. But by then Geithner's nomination was pending and he had recused himself from dealings with AIG.

I can't waste my time on AIG anymore; it's causing my blood to boil.

A final note, the outrage is not that AIG used a small fraction of bailout money to pay bonuses.

The outrage is our incompetent Liar-in-Chief! I'm not kidding. He is either a liar or stupid.

Obama is radical, arrogant, dishonest and dangerous.

VIDEO: Chris Dodd Protected AIG Bonuses In Stimulus Bill; Now He Wants The Money Back?

"One way or another, we're going to try to figure out how to get these resources back," said Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Senate Banking Committee chairman, last night.

You allowed them get those bonuses you idiot! (see below)

This is outrageous! These people are all hypocrites!

Politicians like Dodd, Wepwethentative Bawney Fwank and even President Obama are using the AIG bonus "scandal" as fuel to stir anger into the hearts and minds of angry peasants armed with pitchforks ready to storm AIG offices!

AIG released information on these retention bonuses last year! Everyone knew they were coming and Dodd even put an amendment into the CRAPulus Bill to protect these bonuses!

Let's not forget that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was the architect of the AIG bailout plan!

Let's also not forget that Dodd received more campaign donations from AIG than any other politician! (Obama was second, McCain third) Not to mention, AIG headquarters happens to be in Dodd's home state!

This is nothing more than political grandstanding, using another "crisis" as a diversion from Obama's waning popularity! It's amateurish and outrageous!

Fox Business reports:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group 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 office did not immediately return a request for comment.

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

Dodd Amendment Rules

Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.

For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).

Too big to fail, they say? How about too big! Had the government stayed out of the way, AIG could have filed for bankruptcy protection and a judge could have ruled that these bonuses not be paid.

But, no. Washington wants to have its cake and eat it too, which is why they keep giving AIG cash and then using the problem for political expediency when it suits their needs. Why else would the Fed have to be sued for information regarding how AIG spends the TARP money!

This is all a load of crap and I'm tired of talking about it; it's another Alinsky-esque diversion orchestrated from the White House and Rahm The Ballerina!

Sen. Chris Dodd: Financial Savior? Dodd Has A Book Deal, Claims He Saved The American Economy

Remember, Chris Dodd added a last minute banking industry executive pay cap into the CRAPulus Spending Bill this week.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, Dodd’s book titled, Thirteen Days: How the Financial Crisis Changed the Politics of Washington, "will provide an intimate look at how, over the course of 13 days last September, a financial crisis led to panic and meltdown," and "will describe how he and others acted swiftly to try to save the American economy."

Um, last time I checked, the economy was worse than it was last September.

Not to mention the hypocrisy of blaming George Bush and Henry Paulson for the "failed" TARP program. How can Dodd and liberals criticize Bush for the failure of TARP, and then take credit for its success?

Time proves the hypocrisy here:

“This is, of course, the same Chris Dodd who was Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee beginning in 2007, when the banks began their meltdown. He was the one who received the most campaign cash of any senator from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two companies that he defended against increased regulation that might have actually tempered some of the disaster that has followed. He was the one who spent a huge chunk of 2007 not in the Senate, but on the campaign trail, carrying out a lackluster presidential effort funded largely by the banking and insurance industries.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Dodd raised $8.3 million for his presidentical [SIC] campaign; $4.3 million came from the securities and investments industry. His top contributor was Citibank. His fourth largest contributor was the now-collapsed firm, AIG, a major purveyor of the complex derivitives that helped cause the crisis. He was also the one who in 2007 went before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to praise the "history of solid regulation" in the U.S. capital markets. "Win or lose, [people] invest with a high degree of confidence that American balance sheets are accurate, that investment products like securities and derivatives are properly valued, and that the markets are well-policed against those who would commit negligent, deceptive, or fraudulent acts," he said.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Brian Walsh questioned Senator Dodd’s decision today stating:

"You have to wonder who advised Senator Dodd that striking a book deal on a crisis that he was at least partially responsible for was a good idea. A more apt title would be ‘13 Weeks: The Senate Banking Committee Chairman’s Time in Iowa While the Housing Market Collapsed.’ Senator Dodd should turn his complete attention to providing the economic relief that his constituents need, and forget about lining his pockets with a tell-all book about the financial crisis that has affected the lives of millions of Americans."

To Sum Up:

Chris Dodd is writing a book on how he single-handedly saved the world. He takes credit for the exact same thing in which Liberals chastise George Bush. The success he claims is a hallucinatory vision of reality.

And Dodd will profit personally from something which screwed the rest of us.

Sure, makes perfect sense for a hypocritical Liberal idiot.

Sen. Chris "The Snake" Dodd Sneaks Executive Pay Cap Into "Stimulus" At Last Minute

Yet another example of Under Cover of Darkness political meandering. Sneaky, Senator, very sneaky.

(Hat Tip: Jammie Wearing Fool)

From LATimes Blog:
Late fix in stimulus bill imposes tighter limits on bank pay

The economic stimulus bill passed by the Senate on Friday includes curbs on executive pay that go well beyond what Wall Street had been expecting. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, slipped the provisions into the bill late in the process. The entire stimulus package now heads to President Obama for his signature.

From the Washington Post:

The bill limits bonuses for executives at all financial institutions receiving government funds to no more than a third of their annual compensation.

The bonuses must be paid in company stock that can be redeemed only when the government investment has been repaid.

Unlike compensation rules the White House had previously issued for executives of companies getting additional government capital, Dodd made his measure retroactive, the Post said:

The limits in the stimulus bill would apply to top executives and the highest-paid employees at all 359 banks that have already received government aid.

"This is a big deal. This is a problem," said Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the nation's largest financial services firms. "It undermines the current incentive structure."

It's also retroactive.

WASHINGTON -- The giant stimulus package that cleared Congress Friday includes a last-minute addition that restricts bonuses for top earners at firms receiving federal cash -- including those that already received it -- more severely than the Obama administration's previous pay limits.

The most stringent pay restriction bars any company receiving funds from paying top earners bonuses equal to more than one-third of their total annual compensation. That could severely crimp pay packages at big banks, where top officials commonly get relatively modest salaries but often huge bonuses.

Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, who are as responsible as anyone for the current economic mess, continue to successfully use class warfare to push their Radical Socialist agenda.





Sadly, these two morons will never accept responsibility for their failures.

As a final slap in the face, this move will reduce tax revenue to the government by as much as $11 Billion!

Turns out there is a problem with limiting the pay of highly compensated bankers: the Wall Street high flyers pay taxes, too.

Imagine this: Capping top bank executives at $400,000 a year, as the Senate version of the $800-plus billion economic stimulus had called for, would have cost the government $11 billion in lost tax revenue by 2019. That's more than $1 billion a year, according to an estimate this week by the Congressional Budget Office.