It's ironic that Rep. Barney Frank trashed AIG for "rewarding incompetence" in handing out bonuses to executives. Isn't that just what Frank did when he championed the bailout of financial companies in the first place? Come to think of it, "rewarding failure" is just what Frank has urged banks to do by lending to risks with poor credit histories who nevertheless score high with pols like Frank with their preferred minority status. When the government rewards failiure, government officials shouldn't be surprised when the reward recipients reward failure too.

Isn't that what his constiutents have been doing for years?

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/28/franks_fingerprints_are_all_over_the_financial_fiasco/

This is just crazy talk. Everybody knows that this and everything else that has (and will continue to) go wrong is all George Bush's fault.

And oh, btw, for all of you who were worried that Cheney and Bush were illegally listening in on your telephoned pizza orders, how's about President O looking to put together a national database of everybody's medical data? Government in charge of such personal and sensitive information as citizens' medical histories? I think I'd rather they know that I like anchoves.

I fear Big Brother no matter which party hat he wears.

Well said Dan. Actually, I think we've suceessfully incorporated rewarding failure into the very fabric of our society. School has had virtually every aspect of competition erased - turning our children into dumbed-down narcissists. Political correctness has been like a regimen of steroids to an already healthy Peter Principle in the private sector; where the name of your school is more important than ability or character in obtaining employment. And government, well - that's a whole 'nuther level of rewarding incompetence isn't it.

This is ridiculous. These aren't just "rewards for a job well done," many are roster bonuses!!

If you're going to sell off a portion of your company--even if you know that portion is going to be absorbed eventually by the new owners--you can't have the team out looking for jobs by the sale date. Teams have to transition the systems over to the system preferred by the new owners. People with expertise have to stay in place, or what you have a worthless puddle of melted goo. Knowing that facing termination is not anybody's dream, th-ey compensate people for their job going away by roster bonuses!!
(Your filtering software gets wierder and wierder...)

Some people can be forgiven for not knowing that ~400 of these contractual bonuses were this type of bonus. These people forfeited the time they could have spent looking for a new job waiting for their job to be dissolved--and the incentive was the bonus. Roster bonuses are a way of saying "Thanks, for staying on board a sinking ship."

And now Dodd wants to confiscate compensation for actions in 2007 simply because the company couldn't right the ship in 2008?!?!