[supremedoctrine]

You indirectly bring up a good point:
the AIG bonuses are NOTHING, and that’s why they’re being focussed on, and that’s also why Dems like Dodd, and Geithner are willing to take the blame. As long as this little ritual can be played out on the National Stage, it will obscure the far more important stuff. But for now, all the guilty parties have their fingers crossed that the fallout from this won’t be too great, and that capital-A Absolution should begin and end here, with this entirely meaningless and arguable issue of AIG “bonuses”. They have been busy spinning it on one level, feigning no knowledge of their own culpability,but now their culpability has been revealed, so they “have to “ admit something, as Dodd did, in a perfect fit with Geithner’s only paying (part of) his outstanding taxes as he was about to enter the public eye big-time.

[Liz]

.....the AIG bonuses are NOTHING, and will obscure the far more important stuff....

Think of this as the straw that broke the camel's back.

And remember that Al Capone was not nailed for his multiple actual crimes---but was put away for tax evasion.

I would love to see Dems nailed for the BIG crimes but sometimes going in the back door gets the job done.