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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (34170)	3/17/2009 10:10:09 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 71588

The New AIG CEO's history is interesting: A little hardball might be just the medicine AIG needs chicagotribune.com David Greising March 17, 2009 chicagotribune.com The last time Edward Liddy faced a vexing compensation issue, as chief executive of Northbrook-based Allstate Corp., he cut costs with all the finesse of a blunderbuss: He axed 6,000 of Allstate's highest-paid agents. That was then; this is now. As head of insurance giant American International Group, which is 80 percent owned by taxpayers, Liddy seems to be going all wobbly on compensation issues. Liddy is going ahead with $165 million in bonuses. That is the first payment of $492 million due to employees in a unit of AIG that would have put the company out of business last year had the U.S. government not come through with $173.3 billion in bailout money. But those AIG traders were promised fat bonuses. And Liddy, who was brought in to clean up the mess the traders and product managers made, has decided the bonuses must be paid. Outside lawyers have told him so. "Quite frankly, AIG's hands are tied," Liddy, AIG's chief executive, wrote in a letter Saturday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. What ever happened to the Liddy who went after Allstate agents a decade ago like a scythe through chaff? No cautious legal counsel stopped him then. The agents sued. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued—twice. Liddy fought those lawsuits, and Allstate has won at every stage. Michael Lieder, the lawyer who represents the 6,000 Allstate agents, is struck by Liddy's newfound respect for the power of employment contracts. "The positions he is taking at AIG are in direct conflict with the positions he was taking with regard to our clients," Lieder said. This time around, a little of the old Ed Liddy would go a long way toward arriving at what is right for AIG and the taxpayers who essentially own the company. Liddy likely has the power to fire AIG's bonus babies on the spot. Employed as they are on at at-will basis, he can simply let the whole lot of them go, say compensation experts familiar with AIG's structure. Not that Liddy should let them all go. After all, he does need some of them to wind down the derivatives business and its toxic tide of assets. Some he needs, others he does not. And since he can get by without all of them, then virtually none should feel secure. That's why most of them, perhaps all of them, should be willing to forgo their bonuses in order to save their jobs. Liddy need not make any threats. He merely needs to take the traders and product managers at AIG Financial Products Group and explain the facts of post-bailout life. "He can say, 'Hey, I know we had an agreement, but times are changing. The klieg lights are on. I'm not going to fire anyone, but something has to change,' " said Brian Tobin, practice leader at Hay Group, a firm specializing in compensation and human resources consulting. It's true the times have changed since those employments contracts were written in early 2008. Motorola, Continental Airlines and Applied Materials are among struggling companies where top executives are ripping up their contracts and giving back pay. A growing number of companies are reclaiming bonuses from executives who puffed up financial results. A move against the bonus babies at AIG would merely extend a growing trend. The AIG employees know Liddy's history. They know he can play hardball. They also know this is no time to start a job hunt in the derivatives business with three scarlet letters—AIG—on their résumés. If this sounds tough-minded, it is and it should be. After all, these are the traders who ran the business that broke the company that helped wreck the economy. If they still want a bonus after all they have done, a little hardball from Liddy is the least they should expect. dgreising@tribune.com Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

To: jlallen who wrote (34170)	3/17/2009 1:43:21 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

So if you had lived in Dodge City you would have just accepted having no rule of law and not complained? I guess for some it is better to just go along than to fight for what is right. We will see what happens. Obama may not be able to run for reelection in 2012. Missouri's proposed law requiring proof of eligibility would prohibit Obama from appearing on the ballot there. It could be the first of many.

To: jlallen who wrote (34170)	3/17/2009 5:43:15 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

HOUSE CALL Jesse H. Merrell, who lives on Garfield Street Northwest, tells Inside the Beltway that a pair of deputy U.S. marshals paid him a visit last Friday after he had written a letter to U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson regarding President Obama's citizenship controversy. Judge Robertson this month threw out a lawsuit questioning whether Mr. Obama was a native-born American citizen, and therefore qualified under the Constitution to be president. The judge ruled that the eligibility question has been dragged through the mud long enough. "The issue of the president's citizenship was raised, vetted, blogged, texted, twittered, and otherwise massaged by America's vigilant citizenry during Mr. Obama's two-year-campaign for the presidency, but this plaintiff wants it resolved by a court," Judge Robertson wrote when dismissing the case brought by Gregory Hollister, a retired Air Force colonel. Mr. Merrell now reveals: "I was visited by two U.S. marshals ... after I had written a letter to Judge Robertson for his rant threatening sanctions over lawyers who filed a suit challenging Obama's right to be president over the 'natural born' citizen clause in the Constitution. "I told them unless the First Amendment had been repealed, or they were going to arrest me, we had nothing to talk about." Mr. Merrell says one of the marshals cited "some obscure law which made it illegal to say anything that caused 'emotional distress' to a federal judge."