CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries To Undo Bonus Protections He Put In. “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. . . . Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: Obama’s Latest Costly Blunder. “Obama and his team knew about the AIG bonus issue for quite some time. They had already concluded there was nothing to be done without causing greater risk. Now the very people AIG claims it needs to sort out the mess and prevent further economic damage are resigning, or just not showing up due to death threats and whatever else. Two months in and Obama has helped tank the stock market with pessimism only to help him pass a political agenda in the form of a stimulus package. His latest blurt seems to have been counter-productive to his stated economic goals. But hopefully Obama feels better for having gotten his rage on.”

This is the gang that can’t shoot straight. (Bumped).

ANOTHER UPDATE: “You can lease Dodd, but you can’t buy him.”