Comments on: A recap of the AIG Bonus Blame Party.

By: Ron Robinson

Ron Robinson — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:34:11 +0000

…I vote to blame the folks who voted for the bill without reading it.

And I resent their posturing as if it were someone else’s fault.

By: nomosteele

nomosteele — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:15:18 +0000

Let them keep the money. If we start taking money from those that earned it, where does it stop?

By: AKSteveB

AKSteveB — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:16:43 +0000

Big crowd. The introductions were done by alternating Lt. Governors, Lehman, and Parnell. Lehman wore the Lincoln Hat and gave the “Gettysburg Address intro” of Gov. He shouldn’t give up his day job. Both Don Young’s and Lisa Murkowski’s speeches were pre recorded, I thought both were quite good, Rep. Young was especially sharp. The old guy ain’t dead yet. Ralph Seekins did the auction stuff. As I’m sure you know, it is what he was born to do.

Gov. Palin’s keynote was …all over the place. It went way too long, I’m guessing close to an hour. For the first 30 minutes or so, I thought she hit a home run. She hit the Dems hard, had great timing, looked like she was enjoying herself. She hit a lot of good themes both local and national. If she stopped then she would have had an almost perfect “HELLO 2010″ launch. Then it got weird. She started on a riff about needing party unity, about needing to heal from some of the stuff that went on, then went on what had to be a 15 minute tirade about “Tasergate”, having to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars of her own money fighting off frivolous ethics complaints many of which she said quite directly “were probably filed by people in this room”, the treatment her family was getting etc. It was strange since during that earlier 30 minutes, one of the things she pounded on is that we have to be optimistic, not whine. The folks at my table were just looking at each other, unsure what to think. I’m just wondering if this was scripted, or if she lost it when she saw someone in the crowd. She then went to a pretty standard boilerplate closing, which she struggled to get through. I’ll be curious how it gets played by the Media tomorrow. I’m not quite sure what I’d write myself, if I were in their shoes.

One thing I do have to say is Gov. Palin probably did the best Reaganesque defense I’ve ever seen; of how you grow the party, not by moderating, but by welcoming independents and even Dems who don’t have a home anymore in such a Leftist party. If anyone videoed tonight, they need to send out to the State Party Chairs and make them memorize it.

My other impressions were
- it was an older crowd. Other than the College Repub crowd, I was on the youngish side.
-A lot of the folks were real friendly and talkative to this unknown newbie.
-I think it sucks that Ted Stevens wasn’t there at least by video if not in person. They had better getter over that distancing act soon. There are still a lot of people who will be a lot more inclined to open their checkbooks, if they think that is what Uncle Ted wants.
-It was another reminder that Alaska continues to be proud of its tradition of bringing in mail order and imported brides
-I’d really be happy with Sean Parnell as Governor

By: AKSteveB

AKSteveB — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:10:27 +0000

for Redstate. I already do at home!

By: Achance

Achance — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:09:28 +0000

Let us know how much love there is in the room! I still haven’t heard back from Young’s office.

By: AKSteveB

AKSteveB — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:06:29 +0000

I’m gonna be at the Lincoln Dinner tonight, I’ll be curious what people think.

By: AKSteveB

AKSteveB — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:06:29 +0000

I’m gonna be at the Lincoln Dinner tonight, I’ll be curious what people think.

By: Achance

Achance — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:31:36 +0000

over voting yea on the damned stupid HR 1386 90% tax. I did and in no uncertain words. Haven’t heard back yet.

By: jonreagan

jonreagan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:46:00 +0000

Democrats have always believed that there is a huge amount of “success envy” out there among average people, towards those who earn large salaries and/or have wealth. As an example, they couldn’t understand it when their “bombshell” about the McCains owning several houses fell flat last Summer. Like you, I’ve got a life, and couldn’t care less about bonuses at AIG, Goldman Sachs, or anywhere else, for that matter.

While I think bonuses should ideally be awarded for outstanding performances, I also realize that on Wall Street and elsewhere, the system can be abused. At that point it should become a matter for the free market and boards of directors to discipline. And usually, the bad actors are punished; just ask Stan O’Neal, Chuck Prince, and Dick Fuld. The competent guys like Jamie Dimon and John Mack are the ones left standing. Unfortunately, imbeciles like Barney Frank, Elijah Cummings, and Brad Sherman will never grasp these concepts.

By: AKSteveB

AKSteveB — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:06:55 +0000

when the oil companies were making “obscene profits.” I assume cooler heads will prevail before this legislation gets serious but if not, this one MUST be challenged all the way to the SC. Understand, that this would allow government to intervene far beyond the Euro light-Socialists.

By: UpLateAgain

UpLateAgain — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:38:57 +0000

Well stated!

By: tnjim

tnjim — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:28:52 +0000

All this phony outrage from people like Barney Frank and others in Congress and the MSM is what rubs me raw. I’ll say this: I’d rather see AIG employees get this money than some porkulus provision like pig odor research on field mice or especially ACORN. If Congress is really so concerned about tax payers getting ripped off why didn’t they strip things like that out of the last 2 spending bills? Oh yeah, nobody read them, my bad. This 90% tax is gonna come around to affect everyone that gets a bonus whether they took bailout money or not I fear. The company I work for (an auto parts supplier) suspended our bonuses. It’s probably just as well. I sure don’t want the government to get it.

By: JustLeaveMeAlone

JustLeaveMeAlone — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:21:59 +0000

Congress doesn’t read bills before voting on them.

The American people don’t read them either.

The President doesn’t read them before he signs them.

And apparently the Constitution is something no one in DC has ever heard of.

By: Alberta

Alberta — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:10:21 +0000

By: itrytobenice

itrytobenice — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:05:39 +0000

If he hadn’t used his power as NY Attorney General to bust the chops of Hank Greenburg so he could run for Gov, this would have never happened. The destruction of AIG, and all the money that it has sucked down the rat hole, can be laid directly at his ~~feet~~belly. (Snakes don’t have feet.)

He didn’t have a case against Greenburg. He abused his power. He is a bad man. And the nation is paying because the voters of NY are stupid enough to fall for that kind of stupid crap.

By: UpLateAgain

UpLateAgain — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:21:37 +0000

And that’s what makes it all the more dubious to me. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but it would not at all surprise me to see the Democrats allow something like this to happen primarily for the purpose of rushing legislation through on the back of the public outrage that sets a legal precedent allowing ex-post-facto legislation under certain circumstances…. because that’s a power the Democrats would DEARLY love to have.

They are looking at setting up a Democratic thousand-year Reich, and I don’t think they are majorly concerned with that Constitution thingy if it gets in the way.

By: franklinslocke

franklinslocke — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:19:40 +0000

This is pathetic. They look horrible, and they are embarrassing the U.S. Our enemies have to be looking at us and laughing while our allies are shaking their heads in shame.

http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/

By: UpLateAgain

UpLateAgain — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:15:39 +0000

By the time they are, this will all comfortably be George Bush’s fault.
I just haven’t quite figured out how yet.

By: ATLconservative

ATLconservative — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:11:52 +0000

As if that means anything anymore…

By: RJD

RJD — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:48:51 +0000

at this story and it’s spin-offs for the next 2 years, non-stop. This is how government corrupts. This is why government should not dictate to business or invest in the free market.

Question is, can Republicans do this without hitting their own thumbs?