Dems Investigating Bush Administration Role In AIG Collapse

This should be the headline in every news paper and broadcast........

Dems Investigating Bush Administration Role In AIG Collapse
April 1, 2009 02:18 PM

A House oversight panel is investigating the role Bush administration officials and regulators played in the collapse of American International Group. The first step of the investigation begins Thursday, House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Towns (D-N.Y.) tells the Huffington Post, when the committee hears testimony from former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg.

In November 2004, the Bush Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed not to prosecute AIG for allegedly helping companies fudge their books. In exchange, AIG agreed to host a government-appointed auditor in company meetings. At the time, Greenberg said it brought "finality to the claims raised by the SEC and the Department of Justice."

Towns said that Greenberg should be able to identify Bush administration officials involved in the decision-making around the settlement. Towns added the committee wants to know what Bush administration regulators knew about AIG's credit default swaps and other highly risky positions that brought the company down.

Asked if he would be directly pursuing Bush administration officials, Towns said: "No doubt about it. That's the reason I want to talk to Greenberg first. He might even point some folks out. That's of great interest to us."

Towns said the committee will also examine the AIG collapse to determine what legislation might be needed to make another occurrence less likely. Greenberg stepped down in 2005.

"The committees have not talked to Mr. Greenberg. They've only talked to Liddy" -- AIG's current head Edward Liddy -- "and Liddy has basically said, 'It was Greenberg's problem,'" Towns said.

"You can't have an investigation just moving forward. You have to look back as well. And that's what we're doing," said Towns.

The Bush administration's preferred way of dealing with corporate scandal was to defer prosecution. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Bush prosecutors made 103 deferred and nonprosecution agreements with U.S. companies between 2002 and 2009. While Clinton was president, meanwhile, only 11 such pacts were entered into.

Criminal charges could result from the investigation, Towns said.

"All kinds of things could happen depending on what we find. And we're looking," he said. "Our eyes are wide open. Wherever the road leads us, that's where we plan to go."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/dems-investigating-bush-a_n_181868.html?view=print

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

Ohhmama wrote:

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

Did you see today where the charges were dropped against Senator Ted Stevens R-AK? You think a Republican admin would ever do that?

No. I don't know anything about the case.

Ohhmama wrote:

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

I disagree. The time to pass blame is not now. Let's resolve the AIG situation, and then go after the Democrats and Republicans involved. Unfortunately this is the same old two party game of passing the blame. I want them to fix it.

paul87920 wrote:

Ohhmama wrote:

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

I disagree. The time to pass blame is not now. Let's resolve the AIG situation, and then go after the Democrats and Republicans involved. Unfortunately this is the same old two party game of passing the blame. I want them to fix it.

Exactly why both parties need to be investigated. It can't be fixed until the morons involved are removed, IMO.

I see what you're saying.

Ohhmama wrote:

Exactly why both parties need to be investigated. It can't be fixed until the morons involved are removed, IMO.

Yeah,well right now we're working on the Bush administration. That should keep us busy for quite some time.

Ohhmama wrote:

paul87920 wrote:

Ohhmama wrote:

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

I disagree. The time to pass blame is not now. Let's resolve the AIG situation, and then go after the Democrats and Republicans involved. Unfortunately this is the same old two party game of passing the blame. I want them to fix it.

Exactly why both parties need to be investigated. It can't be fixed until the morons involved are removed, IMO.

paul84920 wrote:

I see what you're saying.

I don't.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has a job to do, and part of that job is oversight of the Executive Branch, no matter which political party is in power. It's not a committee composed only of members of the Democratic Party.. There are 16 Republicans on the committee. They're not about to just sit there and allow some "witch hunt" that only involves one party.

http://oversight.house.gov/about/members.asp

The chairman of the Committee said ""All kinds of things could happen depending on what we find. And we're looking," he said. "Our eyes are wide open. Wherever the road leads us, that's where we plan to go."

There is no reason to doubt his words, or imply that they will only be investigatiing Republicans. That's just BS. We should be glad that this committee is looking into this, because that's why the commitee exists in the first place. I have no idea what will come out in these hearings, but there is certainly no reason to sweep any deeds of the Bush Administration under the rug.

If there was anything improper about the actions of the Executive Branch regarding AIG, the American people have a right to know about it. The simple fact of the matter is that the current administration wasn't in office during the runup to the AIG problem. I don't know if the Bush Administration was guilty of anything other than incompetence or not. Their failure of the Bush Administration to rein in AIG has proven to be a monumental lapse in judgement, but that doesn't mean that they did anything criminal in nature.

I just don't see why anyone would object to a congressional oversight committe looking into the matter. If Congress is going to pass reforms of the financial services industry in this country, then it's a good idea to get a full understanding of exactly what caused the problems in the first place, don't you think?

Well in a fewer words isn't that what Mama said when she said that both parties should be investigated?

paul87920 wrote:

Well in a fewer words isn't that what Mama said when she said that both parties should be investigated?

No, here's what she said...

Ohhmama wrote:

Hopefully the democrats will also investigate their own party...

Somehow I don't think they will.

I could be wrong, but that sounds like she doesn't believe that the Oversight Committee is capable of being honest, and won't investigate if any Democrats are involved. Perhaps that's not what she meant to imply, but it sure looks that way to me. Maybe she meant something else and will clarify.

Well when I said "I see what you are saying", it was after a post she made saying that both parties should be investigated.

paul87920 wrote:

Well when I said "I see what you are saying", it was after a post she made saying that both parties should be investigated.

Point taken. Actually, I'm not sure if Ohhmama was even referring to the work of the Oversight Committee.

Actually look at the title of this topic "Dems Investigating Bush Administration Role In AIG Collapse", it said nothing about Repubs investigating also. Hence my comment- and no it really didn't refer to the OC.

I think if Democrats are going to look into one administration, which I agree with, they also need to see who of the Democrats benefited from AIG, and their role. I'm against any corruption, regardless of the party.

Mama,The investigation is about the Justice Dept,which was run by Bush,not the Dems. Already we're seeing just how corrupt and incompetent they were by the fact that charges had to be dropped against Alaska Sen Ted Stevens because of misconduct. IMO,that's probably just the tip of the iceberg.

It's almost time they will be scouting around Congress and Obama. Just a matter of time.

I read the FEDS are looking into Obama's appointees and CONGRESS as a whole. Read in some newspaper my bro brought home.

Axelrod, Jarret, a few others are being looked into for pension fraud, tax crap, so what else is new?