Jan 2, 2010 – There was a very interesting recent article in the NY Times titled “What’s a Bailed-Out Banker Really Worth?” Contained within is an interesting vignette on Christopher Dodd and AIG:

That Dodd led the attacks on A.I.G. when what came to be called the retention bonuses were revealed infuriates my A.I.G. friend. He says that his boss asked everyone at A.I.G. Financial Products ‘to contribute the maximum to Dodd, because he was so important in Washington in terms of regulating the products we sell.’ My friend went on to say: ‘Before he attacked us, Dodd was in our office’ — in Wilton, Conn. — ‘giving a speech telling us how great we were. And our checks were in envelopes stacked up right there.’

It turns out that according to the Federal Election Commission filings, 31 AIG employees gave the $2,100 maximum.  Again, according to the NY Times:

Asked about the event, and about checks stacked on a table, Dodd said: ‘Yes, it happened. I remember having a fund-raiser there. . . . I can’t finance my own campaigns. I have to raise money,” he added. “But what does this guy think? That if they give me money I have to do what they want me to do? That tells you something about them.’

Even if it is legal, can someone tell us why this isn’t corruption? Does anyone who was in that room not think that they were buying influence? It is really credible to believe that Chris Dodd would walk out of that room without a feeling of indebtedness to AIG?  Yet, incredibly this is just considered the standard way to do business in Washington. And this one even has the ultimate irony, that as soon as it became politically expedient to pile on AIG, Dodd quickly did so. Even though according to the calculations of the AIG execs, he was influential enough to try to buy influence with.  So presumably, he was one of the politicians who could have actually done something to rein in the company before the disaster struck.  Instead he was collecting checks… If this happened in Afghanistan, we would call it corruption.  In the US, its “just the way it’s done”.  Wow.