VDH Watch: AIG Edition
March 25th, 2009 by Nick SaintI defy anyone out there to steer me in the direction of a more consistently dishonest politics blogger who began as a classics professor than Victor Davis Hanson. Here’s his take on the AIG bonus drama, which he entitled ‘Cry, the Beloved Republic’ because that’s the sort of calm, thoughtful guy he is, along with some (I hope) helpful suggestions on how he might improve it:
Forget Halliburton, Enron, etc. — AIG is the metaphor of our new century. Let’s get this straight: Our president takes over $100,000 from AIG in campaign donations. Then he signs into legislation a bill crafted by his own party, with input from his own Treasury secretary, giving mega-bonuses to the execs of this bankrupt, federally bailed-out company — and then goes on the stump to trash the culture of Wall Street as typified by . . . AIG, of course.
Let me stop you right there, Victor. I know, I know, you’re just beginning to foam at the mouth, but I really must interject. If there were a bill, crafted by Democrats, with input from Geithner, and signed into law by Obama that awarded bonuses to AIG, that would be outrageous. I’m with you there. The only detail I want to quibble with is the part where you say this actually happened. It didn’t. The AIG bonuses were awarded by, well - you’re going to kick yourself when I tell you - AIG. See, the scheme’s genius lies in its simplicity: AIG determined for itself how it would compensate its employees. In the case of these bonuses, they were written into contracts well before any of the relevant legislation. Sorry, please continue:
Not to be outdone, Senator Dodd denies he put the AIG bonus provision in the bill, then — in a now familiar Obama administration habit — coughs up the truth that he in fact did when the evidence no longer allows him to prevaricate as is his wont.
Sorry, I have to jump in again, but I’ll be quick. Senator Dodd is not, as it turns out, a member of the Obama administration. The clue is in the title ‘Senator’. Think back to your grade school days, when you read about “How a Bill Becomes Law”, and studied the fun diagrams with the various branches of government, and the checks and balances between them.
So ethicist Rangel now uses his position to post facto rewrite tax laws to get back the money from AIG that his party approved, his president signed into law, and he himself used to out-elbow others for.
Actually, that bill would have taken money back from AIG employees, specifically the bonuses they received, which, you will recall, were not provided for in any such bill outside your imagination. And a general word of advice: when trying to demonstrate how corrupt Charlie Rangel is, lying can only hurt you.
