To: SeachRE who wrote (157286 ) 3/19/2009 2:46:06 PM From: Hope Praytochange 1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 173976 What’s more, Republicans asserted, the Democrats are mostly responsible for the A.I.G. bonus debacle, since Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, inserted language in President Obama’s economic stimulus package — not to be confused with the TARP legislation, passed in the waning days of the Bush administration, by the old Congress — to exempt bonuses granted by contract before Feb. 11 from general restrictions on bonus payments. Mr. Dodd has said the Treasury Department insisted on the exemption in final negotiations on the stimulus legislation. Republicans have been calling the provision a “dark of night” or “dead of night” deed, as Ms. Biggert did. Some Republicans have also been offering reminders that not one of them in the House voted for President Obama’s stimulus program. Of course, it is not uncommon for complicated legislation to go through Congress with sections that escape detailed initial scrutiny. And when the lawmakers considered President Obama’s economic stimulus package, they no doubt recalled that, on the day last fall when the TARP legislation initially stalled in the House, the stock market plunged so alarmingly that the House members were prompted to pass the legislation in a follow-up vote. No lawmaker had anything good to say on Thursday about the A.I.G. bonus recipients, notwithstanding the disclosure that the new A.I.G. leadership has asked them to give back some or all of the money, and that some have actually volunteered to give it all back. A couple of themes have emerged in the continuing financial crisis. Democrats and Republicans have accused one another of forgetting history, or trying to rewrite it. Republicans have seized on possible shortcomings in bills passed to combat the crisis, noting that the Democrats control Congress. And Democrats have said the legislation is necessary because of the excesses of the presidency of George W. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress.