Bachmann probes AIG’s Liddy to find who in Congress knew of bonuses
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 5:42 pm
- 8 Comments
Photo: C-SPAN3
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann — famous for urging the media to expose anti-Americans in Congress – did her own probing today, pressing AIG CEO Edward Liddy for names of her colleagues who had foreknowledge of AIG’s controversial bonus payments. “Did any members of Congress know anything about the bonuses?” asked Bachmann. Yes, Liddy responded – at least some were aware of “the obligation to pay the bonuses.”
But he didn’t name names for Bachmann, any more than he did earlier when Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) asked Liddy for names of the AIG executives who got bonuses.
Bachmann’s interrogation went like this:
Which members of Congress or staff knew about this and when?
Any members of the administration who knew about this?
Did any members of Congress know anything about the bonuses?
Could you be responsive about which members of Congress knew?
Liddy said he didn’t know but promised to try to find out for her.
Bachmann’s five minutes of questioning came toward the end of a long day of testimony from Liddy and an earlier panel of witnesses before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
Bachmann, a member of the committee, appeared to be in attendance for the full hearing. Her questioning was measured in tone and lacked the incendiary word choice of other committee members, who shouted “Damn!” and warned Liddy of legislation that would be worse for AIG than waterboarding.
At one point, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (DR-Pa.) banged his gavel and threatened protesters from the group Code Pink with expulsion from the hearing room unless they surrendered their signs. Frank lightened the mood by expressing relief — after seeing how Kanjorski dealt with the signs — that the protesters weren’t wearing the slogans on their shirts.
Here is video from Bachmann’s questioning of Liddy:
8 Comments
Comment posted March 18, 2009 @ 9:46 pm
Was it really absolutely necessary to give any ackowledgement to Bachmann?
Comment posted March 18, 2009 @ 11:41 pm
Kanjorski is a Democrat. I kind of guessed from his hand on the gavel, but his own web site confirms it. http://www.paulkanjorski.com/
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 6:09 am
Eric F – Thanks for the correction. Knew that — must have typed the wrong letter.
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 9:38 am
Bachmann is too busy on a witchhunt that she missed the important point made by Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI). Of course everyone was angry about the bonuses, but McCotter questioned the long-term viability of AIG in light of the additional $30 Billion that Treasury has earmarked for their potential use. The CEO stated that he did not know if those monies would be needed … which prompted the important question … why did the Treasury offer it ?
It is now on the record that approxiamately 30% of the $170 billion AIG received from taxpayers went to foreign entities and well-connected Wall Street firms. The largest amount — $11 billion — went to the Societe Generale Group, a Paris banking and financial services company. Others receiving money include Goldman Saks, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and other entities, including municipalities.
Bachmann needs move past yesterday’s news concerning the small portion that is going to employee bonuses and on to how the big dollars are being spent.
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 10:17 am
Rep. Bachmann is particularly well positioned to investigate this latest Obama administration debacle as she was one of the few in Congress that was smart enough, and principled enough to have voted against all of the ill considered bailouts that precipitated this mess.
We know now that the same Democrat legislators that are screaming the loudest, knew about these bonuses months ago. And so did Obama & his posse.
Incompetence, thy name is Democrat.
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 10:26 am
If you thought it couldn’t get any worse than Bush. The dems are spending more and making grossly incompetent mistakes. Here is the latest (quite shocking) of their trillion dollar blunders:
Cap Schmap:
http://www.butasforme.com/2009/03/17/obamas-stimulus-bill-explicitly-grants-aig-the-legal-right-to-hand-out-bonuses/
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 2:09 pm
She is laughable beyond a doubt. Anyone remember when the dems wanted to cap the compensation of senior CEO’s and the reps squealed like a stuck pig that such a thing was soooooo unamerican. Now, they are showing just how phoney they really are.
Comment posted March 19, 2009 @ 3:00 pm
Michele Bachmann couldn’t investigate a fart at a bean dinner.
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