White House Foists Bonus Blame on Dodd

(NEWSER) - Sen. Chris Dodd says that if he had known the purpose of changes to legislation he drafted for the stimulus package, he “would have flatly rejected it,” CNN reports. Dodd’s rewrite, at the behest of unnamed Treasury officials, allowed AIG and others receiving federal assistance to dole out millions in previously promised bonuses. The Connecticut Democrat says he was led to believe that the changes were “technical and innocuous,” and that he agreed “reluctantly.” More»

(NEWSER) - Treasury chief Tim Geithner said today that he asked Chris Dodd to add a stimulus loophole allowing AIG to dole out bonuses. Geithner told CNN he felt he had no choice because the government would have been vulnerable to lawsuits if it tried to stop them. "But we also worked with (Dodd) to strengthen the overall framework, and his bill has this very important provision we're relying on now to go back and see if we can recoup payments that were made that there was no legal ability to block." More»

Test vote on financial reform expected tomorrow

(NEWSER) - Harry Reid still plans an important test vote on financial reform tomorrow, but there's no bipartisan deal yet. Lead negotiators Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby said on Meet the Press they'll keep working on it today, reports CNN , while Mitch McConnell is sending filibuster signals. "It’s my expectation that we will not go forward with this partisan bill tomorrow," he said on Fox News Sunday. More»

His team lacks common touch

(NEWSER) - The White House economic team is great on policy, but when it comes to reassuring the public, President Obama is on his own, Peter Nicholas and Peter Wallsten write in the LA Times. "The ability to communicate with average people was not what these people were chosen for," Clinton's ex-budget director said. And that means it's up to Obama to sell the administration's complex economic plans. More»

Krugman, Friedman, Dowd, Rich, editorial board all pile on prez

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration bore an avalanche of criticism this weekend from the usually friendly New York Times. Influential columnists Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, Thomas Friedman, and Maureen Dowd—plus the paper’s editorial board—all piled on a president who “is increasingly overwhelmed, and not fully appreciative of the building tsunami of populist outrage,” Politico reports. More»