Reading about all this AIG stuff is enough to give you the shpilkes. One has to wonder, who on earth is protecting these folks? Who are their political allies?
With the help of an internet search engine called Google (apparently not accessible to the mainstream media) a search for "AIG political contributions" will lead an inquiring mind to Yahoo! Answers with a link to the non-partisan OpenSecrets.org site where you will find this chart of AIG contributions. It shows that over the last three election cycles, AIG has given increasingly more to the Dems. From a 55%-45% split in favor of the Dems in 2004, the gap grew to a 68%-32% advantage in this past (2008) cycle.
Continued, dogged investigation (i.e., two more clicks) leads you to this article, entitled, "Before the Fall, AIG Payouts Went to Washington," wherein you will find that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Max Baucus (D-MT) are "among the top recipients of AIG contributions." It goes on to say that AIG his the fourth largest contributor to banking Committee Chair Dodd with a whopping $280,000. In the last cycle, the top 5 recipients of AIG money were (in order) Senators Dodd (D-CT), Obama (D-IL), McCain (R-AZ), Clinton (D-NY) and Baucus (D-MT).
Funny that in this maelstrom of finger-pointing about the paying of the bonuses by AIG, you don't see much reporting on who their patrons have been up until now. Seems like it might make a good story, no?
Maybe it just did.
[Update: Here's today's WaPo story on AIG and here's a link to Chris Dodd's top donors from this past cycle.]