UPDATE: Dodd has to eat his words.

(emphasis EB)

Analysis: White House, Dems backpedaling on AIG

That's because Dodd and others are the one who left the amendments in the bailout allowing for the bonuses to still be paid out.

Republicans, struggling to regain their political footing, are content to let Democrats try to dig their way out of this mess on their own.

Professing shock at the bonus payments, Democrats have embarked on a hurry-up effort to impose what amounts to confiscatory taxes on the bonuses, a maneuver that almost surely will be tested in the courts.

What hypocrites!! It amounted to 33 cents out of every $34,000 or 9 one hundredths of one percent spent on the bailout..yet they're not shocked at their own porkulous packages in the Omnibus bill!

Please...ladies and gentlemen what we have here is a Congress that is acting like an investor....ooops

From Wikipedia on planned economy:

In such economies, central economic planning by the state or government is so extensive that it controls all major sectors of the economy and formulates all decisions about their use and about the distribution of income.

Shades of Uncle Joe....eh

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner enjoys President Barack Obama's confidence, according to the White House.

But the mood is less charitable among congressional Democrats. Republicans have made Geithner their top target, not surprising given Obama's continued high approval ratings.

"It's shocking that they would — the administration would come to us now and act surprised about these contracts," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate GOP leader. "This administration could have and should have ... prevented this from happening. They had a lot of leverage two weeks ago."

That would be when the Treasury Department decided to make an additional $30 billion available to American International Group Inc., the huge insurance conglomerate deemed too big to fail by two administrations.

Which goes to the crux of the Democrats' current political problem.

Gone are the days when they could merely bludgeon the Bush administration and promise to seek bipartisan solutions to the nation's economic problems.

Now, in control of the White House and Congress, they are struggling to come up with an explanation for what no one in either party seems moved to defend.

OOOPSY!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said AIG stands as a symbol of "greed and perhaps corruption."

Hmmm. and we're to believe that the 'Honorable' Mr. Reid had no idea that the bonuses were still going to be paid out.

CUT THE FEIGNED SHOCK AND AWE....OWN UP YOU A'HOLES!

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., scoffed at AIG's claim that the money represents retention pay. "There are enough bright people in this country that would do the job for an honest salary, and enough honest taxpayers demanding that we put an end to this stuff. You can bet I'll make sure justice is served," he said.

Will Congress now decide what an 'honest' salary is? The only thing this taxpayer wants to put an end to is Congress mucking up.

Justice served? When you and your Congressional cohorts are run out of the Senate on a rail!

But the bonus payments occurred on the Democrats' watch, and for Republicans, AIG seems politically providential.

This shouldn't even be a partisan issue...

Their overwhelming opposition to last month's stimulus bill appeared to be gaining little traction as Democrats showcase every shovelful of dirt that is turned — all in the name of economic recovery.

IS IT ANY WONDER WHEN YOU DO NOT MAKE THE TIME TO READ IT!!!

Criticism that Obama and Democrats are embarking on a new era of tax-and-spend is undercut by the lack of a budget alternative from Republicans — the party that presided over a historic run-up in the federal debt earlier this decade when it controlled both the White House and Congress.

That's because the Republicans have no one to pay back...like the unions et al. Republicans controlled the Congress when it's convenient for the Dems to blame them. They blamed Bush when they controlled the Congress (last two years).

Less than 100 days into the Obama administration, polls have brought little good news to Republicans.

Obama's numbers are dropping as well.

While a recent Pew survey found some slippage in Obama's support, it also registered only 28 percent approval for the job being done by GOP congressional leaders, the lowest in nearly 14 years. And a separate survey by CNN and Opinion research Corp. put support for the president's handling of the economy at nearly 60 percent.

Against this backdrop, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sought to explain AIG.

He told reporters that Geithner "last week engaged with the CEO of AIG to communicate what we thought were outrageous and unacceptable bonuses," and "received a commitment to lessen some of the bonuses for senior executives...."

Crocodile tears....you all knew those bonuses had been retained through the legislation.

Asked directly Obama is satisfied that he found out about the bonuses in a timely fashion, Gibbs said: "Yes, the president is satisfied."

The president "has complete confidence" in his Treasury secretary, Gibbs added, although Geithner's early tenure has been anything but smooth. The Cabinet official's introduction of a new plan to bail out the financial industry was widely panned, and his confirmation was held up earlier when it was disclosed he had paid $34,000 in back taxes.

Obama himself has been vocal on the need to do everything possible to recoup the money paid out in bonuses, and so far, no Democrats in Congress have tried to hold him to account.

But the Treasury Department isn't immune, even from Democrats.

"I'm outraged by this," said Baucus in a statement. "At one point the Treasury was in a position to stop these bonuses. Those were the terms of TARP, terms that I helped draft."

NO S*it Sherlock!

But talk of legislation only leads to more uncomfortable questions for Democrats.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., won passage of a provision earlier this year that they said would have prevented the type of payments now at the center of a storm.

It was dropped without explanation in the final compromise on the economic stimulus measure, replaced by a less restrictive set of conditions backed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and accepted by the White House.

Hrrrrmphhh! They're all thumping their chests like it's an outrage yet they're the ones who legislatively allowed it.

"The president goes out and says this is not acceptable and then some backroom deal gets cut to let these things get paid out anyway," said Wyden.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: David Espo is AP's chief congressional correspondent.

Meanwhile Obama may keep attempting to swamp the boat in order to install government run healthcare.