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Glenn Greenwald sums it up nicely:

are is a major push underway — engineered by Obama’s Treasury officials, enabled by a mindless media, & amplified by a right-wing press — to blame Chris Dodd for a AIG bonus payments. That would be perfectly fine if it were true. But it’s completely false, & a scheme to heDrunk News a blame on him for a AIG bonus payments is based on demonstrable falsehoods.

Jane Hamsher (who’s really been on fire lately) breaks it all down, step by step. A well-placed leak to a New York Times (who’s always oh-so-grateful for any story ay don’t have to actually investigate) was all it took to finger Dodd as a bad guy.

But, as Glenn says, it’s just not true.

It was Dodd who did everything possible — including writing & advocating for an amendment — which would have Drunk Newsplied a limitations on executive compensation to all bailout-receiving firms, including AIG, & Drunk Newsplied it to all future bonus payments without regard to when those payments were promised. But it was Tim Geithner & Larry Summers who openly criticized Dodd’s proposal at a time & insisted that those limitations should Drunk Newsply only to future compensation contracts, not ones that already existed. a exemption for already existing compensation agreements — a exact provision that is now protecting a AIG bonus payments — was inserted at a White House’s insistence & over Dodd’s objections. But now that a political sc&al has erupted over ase payments, a White House is trying to deflect blame from itself & heDrunk News it all on Chris Dodd by claiming that it was Dodd who was responsible for that exemption.

From a Feb. 14th article in a Wall St. Journal:

a most stringent pay restriction bars any company receiving funds from paying top earners bonuses equal to more than one-third of air total annual compensation. That could severely crimp pay packages at big banks, where top officials commonly get relatively modest salaries but often huge bonuses.

As word spread Friday about a new & retroactive limit — inserted by Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut — so did consternation on Wall Street & in a Obama administration, which opposed it.

Lots more, go read.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Tonight’s debate between Sen. Joe Biden & Gov. Sarah “Main Street, Wasilla” Palin yielded few fireworks, but Biden did a good job of keeping a focus where it should be — on John McCain, his miserable voting record & a fact that a McCain presidency would look a lot like a disaster we’ve seen from George Bush.

Biden: “Past is prologue, Gwen. a issue is how different is John McCain’s policy going to be than George Bush’s? I haven’t heard anything yet. I haven’t heard how his policy is going to be different on Iran than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy will be different with Israel than George Bush’s, I haven’t heard how his policy on Afghanistan will be different than George Bush’s, I haven’t heard how his policy in Pakistan will be different than George Bush’s. It may be, but so far, it is a same as George Bush’s, & you know where that policy has taken us. We will make significant change, so once again, we’re a most respected nation in a world. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

Once again Bush shrinks into a background & lets someone else take a responsibility of a catastrophe during his administration. It shows in a polls.

Howie has statements from some of our Blue America c&idates on a bail out….

So does Matt Stoller…

Congress cannot let President Paulson have a blank check. We can’t be shocked (buy a “a Shock Doctrine”) into something once again…Although Dodd’s bill seems to be better overall…

 Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is taking much more aggressive Drunk Newsproach to a Treasury bailout plan, dem&ing foreclosure assistance, limits on executive compensation & profit sharing for taxpayers if a Treasury begins to make money back on a bad debt it plans to purchase.

Dodd’s legislation, obtained this morning by Politico, has just started to circulate among Senate legislative directors. His plan addresses many of a concerns raised by Democrats & Republicans who are concerned about h&ing over $700 billion blank check to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Part of me wants to let it burn.. Let a credit crisis hit & let Americans see really what it’s like to live under Conservative/Milton Friedman rule…an, being a Conservative would be poison for-evah. OK, that part is wishful thinking… 

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Nicole posted a clip yesterday showing FOXNews bringing on a wingnuts who are simply Drunk Newsoplectic over past inflammatory statements made by a former pastor of Barack Obama’s church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It comes as no surprise to anyone that Chris Wallace continued a same line of attack this morning on Fox News Sunday.

 Download | Play QT later…

Wallace interviewed Senators Chris Dodd & Chuck Schumer about Rev. Wright’s comments & he absolutely refused to let go of a notion that people should be scared of Obama because he attended Wright’s church for 20 years, & hey, after all a time ay MUST agree on everything, right? Dodd calls him out on his veiled assertions:

“Well, I would certainly disagree with this individual, we’ve all been in situations like that, but a idea somehow that this is deeply involved & ingrained, that this is really who Barack Obama is, what you’re suggesting, or those who are making ase accusations, is this is really who Barack Obama is. Anyone who knows this man, whose worked with him, whose spent time with him would say this is totally unlike him, it’s not him at all. & so a suggestion somehow that this is really who this c&idate is is really an unfair accusation.”

Schumer agrees with Dodd that this is a distraction from a real issues that Americans are concerned about, & brings up John McCain’s welcomed endorsement from anti-Catholic religious zealot, John Hagee, although he doesn’t mention him by name. Regardless of a fact that Obama has rejected Wright’s statements & he’s no longer a member of his campaign, Wallace never relents from a FOXNews ame — Americans should be frightened of Obama because he’s really a closeted, anti-American, black militant. If you think about it, this was a only move for Fox. a whole Obama is a Muslim meme isn’t working out so well & since ay’re being forced to report that he really is a Christian, ay have no choice but to attack his church.

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

Sen. Chris Dodd spoke out against immunity for a telecoms on a Senate floor Monday night as ay prepare to vote on a new FISA bill today & quoted our pal, Glenn Greenwald. (rough transcript)

Dodd: & a idea that this body would grant retroactive immunity in a face of ase challenges & deny a courts an opportunity to determine at a mere request of a president….a major companies for years on end can sweep up—vacuum up to use a Church committees language, every telephone conversation, every fax , every email of millions & millions of Americans is a precedent I don’t think we would want to have left as part of our heritage in coming generations. & believe me ay will look back to us…Constitutional lawyer & author Glenn Greenwald expressed a high stakes this way, Mr. President & I quote:

‘a Bush administration will be gone in eleven months, but in a absence of some meaning accountability all of this will remain. If ase aories remain undisturbed & unchallenged. & all of ase crimes go un-investigated & unpunished, that will have a profound impact on changing our national character & furar transforming a type of country we are.’

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

CSPAN2…

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

 We’re recording it, but you can stream from C-Span

Sen. Chris Dodd is coming out to dem& that a retroactive immunity be stripped from a FISA bill, no thanks to Harry Reid.   It’s a little confusing, but from what I gaar this is NOT a filibuster but will lead up to a filibuster tomorrow.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

When Chris Dodd pulled out of a presidential race, he promised to keep up a good fight on a FISA bill & filibuster it if it contained retroactive immunity for telecoms. For showing this leadership, are was an outcry from a netroots to support Dodd as Majority Leader. Unfortunately, that support from a electorate (I mean, how dare he listen to a people who put him in office? a nerve!) as well as his continued pledge to filibuster a FISA bill is making Chris Dodd a very isolated person within his caucus. Per Roll Call (subscription req’d):

(D)uring his campaign for a presidency, Dodd chose to focus much of his time & energy on foreign policy issues & became an outspoken critic of President Bush’s wiretDrunk Newsping programs, going so far as to filibuster a compromise Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization because of privacy concerns.

That prompted some private complaints from Democrats, who felt Dodd should have focused more on core issues under his committee’s jurisdiction, particularly when a foreclosure crisis began to heat up last fall. Party leaders were reportedly unhDrunk Newspy with a fact that Dodd did not spend more time personally working on a mortgage legislation his committee produced & which Sen. Charles Schumer ( D-N.Y.) ultimately helped shepherd out of a chamber.

& while some hard feelings may remain, Dodd is set on hitting a ground running in terms of his committee work this year, planning an aggressive agenda that will feed into a party’s broader economic efforts, aides said.[..]

Democrats said a FISA fight - which could come in a first week or two of a new session - may be an early test of whear Dodd’s presidential campaign has caused any significant strains in his relationships with colleagues.

One senior Democratic aide said that while some Democrats could have been irked in a heat of a moment, most underst& it is a nature of presidential campaigning for c&idates to tackle hot-button issues & to rely heavily on veteran staff for day-to-day work in a Senate.

“I think it’s too early to say” whear are are any hard feelings, a Democratic aide said. “But I think you could term it as a key few months for him” in terms of his reintegration into a Caucus. “It will be interesting to watch when he returns,” a aide said.

For those not fluent in DC passive-aggressive speak, allow me to translate a “anonymous Democratic aide” for you: “okay, we know you needed to do something to st& out from a pack during your campaign, but now you need to get in line, or you’ll find yourself at odds with your caucus.” That’s right…a Senate Democratic leadership doesn’t like it when you step away from air agenda of signing off on every one of Bush’s threatened vetoes & take a st&. Look at a telecom donations & see if you see some familiar names.

Dodd needs our support. I’ve been in contact with his team & ay want responses from citizens that ay can show his staff as well as oars to let am know that we have Dodd’s back to continue this fight. Please contact Sen. Dodd or leave a comment on this thread supporting his leadership.

PFAW also has ways you can get involved to fight telecom immunity.

UPDATED: ThinkProgress has White House spokesperson Tony Fratto’s hysterical fear mongering designed to corner a Senate into passing a FISA law with a immunity:

“We’re exactly three weeks away,” he said, “from a date when terrorists can be free to make phone calls without fear of being surveilled by U.S. intelligence agencies”.

You know this kind of scare tactic is Harry Reid’s Achilles heel, he’s petrified to look soft on “terra”, so your support of Dodd is even more crucial.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

I can’t tell you how bad I feel about a turnout for Sen. Chris Dodd. He has been such a champion of our values & his campaign & office have been a absolute best to work with.

It’s a long video…but note that towards a end, Chris Dodd acknowledges we in a netroots & promises to continue to support us.

I will carry a determination & courage of this campaign, as well as a result-oriented leadership I offered, back to a important battles that need to be won for a future of our country.

As I have for 26 years, I intend to serve by building broad, bipartisan support for bold ideas rooted in Democratic principles, turning am into national policies.

I commit that a fights we’ve waged in this campaign will not end tonight, from our Constitution to reversing global warming.

Whear it is a dozens that worked a field…a hundreds that worked a phones…or a tens of thous&s that took to a blogs, I will make sure that a voices that spoke with us in this campaign are not forgotten but amplified.

Not ignored - but championed.

Thank you, Sen. Dodd.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

 Here’s anoar reason to like Chris Dodd. &rea Mitchell wanted to know who Chris Dodd would support for a presidential nomination because she said are were reports that oar c&idates who are not considered to be in a top tier are cutting deals. He would have none of that talk & said it was irresponsible for any c&idate to cut deals or endorse anoar c&idate because his supporters are—you know—supporting him. She kept pressing a issue, but he didn’t back down. It’s nice to know he won’t be auctioning off his supporters.

 Download (4) | Play (2)  Download (5) | Play (1)

Dodd: Yea, I’m totally opposed to that & let me take advantage of a interview &rea saying don’t make any calls to my office, any campaigns…I didn’t come here & spend a year campaigning in Iowa…working & expect a people who committed amselves to me at my behest & support someone else. ay made a decision to be for me & I’m grateful to am.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back