While Congress was focused today on grilling AIG over the executive bonuses, the two parties’ House campaign committees have been doing their own back and forth over which party deserves the blame for it.
The NRCC today sent out a press release to the districts of targeted Democrats, accusing them of supporting the AIG bonuses by having voted for the stimulus bill. This goes back to the fact that an 11th-hour amendment to the stimulus bill limited executive compensation on financial institutions receiving bailout money, but didn’t apply the limitation retroactively to prior contracts.
Now the DCCC has sent out a rebuttal statement, slamming Republicans for having blocked previous efforts at limiting executive pay.
And now the NRCC has sent out a fundraising e-mail promoting Jim Tedisco, the Republican candidate in Kirsten Gillibrand’s old House district, who has begun tying the stimulus bill to the AIG bonuses in his campaign. Key quote, emphasis theirs: “The Democrats in this race have based their campaign message on support for the wasteful stimulus package that has allowed AIG to use taxpayer money to provide million dollar bonuses to executives.”
