Once again, the AIG controversy dominated national media coverage last night and this morning. In an indication of the media's strong attention to the story, the networks devoted a combined 23 minutes and 35 seconds to it (compared to 23 minutes and 10 seconds on Tuesday night), and references to the AIG bonuses continued to dominate the late-night comics' monologues. For the most part, the Administration is receiving negative coverage, which includes continued criticism of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and skepticism about previous White House statements about when it learned about the bonuses.
ABC World News reported in its lead story that "the White House said the Treasury Secretary and the President knew nothing of the bonuses until just last week." But AIG chief Edward Liddy, testifying yesterday before a House panel, "said the Federal Reserve Chairman had known about them as far back as last November." On CNN's Situation Room, Minority Leader John Boehner said, "We have to remember that Geithner is now the Treasury Secretary, was head of the New York Federal Reserve. This was his plan that he implemented and he is the central link."
In a front-page titled "How The Fed Failed To Tell Obama About The Bonuses," the Washington Post reports the Fed "knew for months about bonuses at American International Group but failed to tell the Obama administration...exposing problems in a relationship that is vital to addressing the financial crisis."
On CNN's Situation Room Wolf Blitzer said Liddy's statement "certainly conflicts with the White House timeline. The Treasury Department immediately put out a statement saying that Liddy simply got the timing wrong." NBC Nightly News said "Treasury officials" later "said AIG is so big it has more than 100 different kinds of compensation plans and...Geithner had been more focused on top-tier executives and not more lower-ranking, retention bonuses." The CBS Evening News said that "with rage over AIG bonuses still building, the President, before leaving town" for California, "tried to make clear that he gets it."
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reports this morning, "Hurricane AIG blew into town last week, and its winds were still howling Wednesday along the corridors of a White House forced to grapple with its first major public relations crisis." And "the gale force of popular outrage knocked...Obama's budget message off its intended place on the front page." The AP notes that Obama, "who took office just under two months ago, told reporters his administration was not responsible for a lack of federal supervision of AIG that preceded the company's demise, nor for the decision made last year to pay what he called 'outrageous bonuses.'" On CNN's Situation Room Wolf Blitzer said that when questioned about the timeline, Obama "took a pass." The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, says the President's "comments were an effort to change the subject, which has engulfed Washington this week, and pivot to his push to overhaul financial regulations that govern the system and that many blame for the underlying problems." The Washington Times reports Obama "tried to deflect blame."
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports, "A provision in...Obama's stimulus law might have forestalled payment of $165 million in bonuses to employees of American International Group Inc., but was altered before final passage at the request of the Obama administration, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said Wednesday night."
Media reports are remarking in predominantly positive terms on what they see as President Obama's more "populist" message during his visit to California. Arriving on the West coast yesterday, the President made the first of two days' worth of appearances to sell his budget blueprint.
The Los Angeles Times reports, "Carrying a message that the days of greed have ended, President Obama arrived this afternoon in Southern California, where he tried to sell his economic policies to a region coping with rising unemployment, reduced housing prices and an ongoing state budget crisis."
The Washington Post reports President Obama struck "a sharp populist tone" as he said "he is 'trying to bring balance back to our economy' after years when only the wealthiest Americans benefited from government policy and lack of regulation." Obama "said he took responsibility for the AIG scandal even though the contracts paying out the $165 million in bonuses were written before he became president."
The New York Times reports President Obama, "escaping the mounting uproar in Washington over executive bonuses at the American International Group, came here Wednesday for a raucous town-hall-style meeting where he promised that his $3.6 trillion budget and recovery plan would put the country's economy back on track."
The AP reports that in Washington, President Obama is "the ultimate insider, hosting White House parties to woo lawmakers and diplomats. Elsewhere, he increasingly plays the embattled and populist crusader, helping average Americans fight entrenched interests on Capitol Hill and Wall Street."
USA Today reports the President "fielded questions from the crowd about illegal immigration, economic recovery and whether he plans to run for re-election for a second term." The Washington Times reports President Obama told the town hall meeting "that rich people can afford to pay higher taxes in selling his budget plan as an investment in the nation's future."
Obama Sets Precedent With Leno Appearance USA Today reports President Obama "hasn't been practicing one-liners, but he is going Thursday night where no sitting president has gone before: to a late-night comedy show." Obama "plans to be a guest on NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m. ET. His press secretary says not to look for a comedy routine."
Obama To Hold News Conference On Tuesday The AP reports President Obama "is holding a prime-time news conference next week. The White House says Obama will answer questions from the media during a nationally televised forum beginning at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday."
Rove Says Obama Giving GOP An Opening In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove says President Barack Obama "and his West Wing lieutenants are playing on the world's largest stage, yet act as if no one is watching them when they contradict their campaign promises. That behavior is unwittingly giving the Republicans an opening."
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NBC Nightly News reported a White House plan to bill veterans' private insurance for war or service-related injuries "came under intense fire" Wednesday "in Washington and in American Legion halls across the country." Veteran "sources tell NBC News even the new head" of the Department of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, "was strongly opposed. And late today, faced with another political firestorm, the White House put out this statement, saying the President had retreated and dropped the proposal."
Fox News Channel's Fox Report With Shepard Smith said, "The proposal was intended to save more than $500 million a year" for the VA, but veterans groups "were among those outraged by the idea, saying it would break faith with wounded troops and use up the vets' benefits."
In a story headlined "White House Caves On Veterans Plan, But What Was It Thinking?", McClatchy reports, "Stung by the angry reaction to the proposal, the administration made the decision after a meeting between officials from 11 veterans advocacy groups and top White House officials." What "was most puzzling to experienced activists and others was that the White House floated the idea in the first place. Several said that the administration came off as politically tone deaf to the importance of the issue."
The AP reports, "Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said the idea was on the table as the administration sought 'to maximize the resources available for veterans.'" But veterans groups "complained that the proposal would reverse government policy of taking responsibility for caring for the war wounded and said it could cause difficulties for veterans in getting future insurance or even jobs."
The Politico notes Gibbs "issued a statement confirming the reversal, saying the president had listened closely to the veterans' concerns and ordered the proposal 'dropped.'" The New York Times reports Gibbs "said Mr. Obama had heeded the concerns of veterans' organizations that feared the proposal could make it more difficult for some of their members to obtain care." In turn, veterans "groups thanked the president on Wednesday."
The Washington Times reports the "administration's about-face also received bipartisan applause on Capitol Hill." The Washington Post says US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), "a senior member of the Veterans' Affairs and Budget committees, issued a statement saying that the president 'did the right thing in dropping this proposal.'"
The Washington Post reports that a "civilian 'surge' of hundreds of additional US officials in Afghanistan would accompany the already approved increase in US troop levels there under a new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy being completed at the White House," according to Administration officials. President Obama is expected to make "final decisions next week on that strategy, proposed by his top national security advisers and based on recommendations from senior military, diplomatic and intelligence officials and intensive consultations with NATO and United Nations partners."
The AP reports that President Obama "is expected to act on and announce next week" the plan that was finalized Tuesday by "members of Obama's Principals' Committee, which is made up of the national security adviser, the secretaries of state and defense and the country's intelligence chiefs," during a meeting at the White House." Obama's team of advisers, reports McClatchy, have also "been debating how broad or narrow overall US goals in Afghanistan should be -- whether, for example, to limit the mission to counterterrorism, as opposed to the broader goal of building an Afghan democracy."
Asked on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show whether it would be possible to quadruple the number of Afghans "wearing uniforms", New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkens said, "My experience in Afghanistan when you go into these villages people are pretty much the same everywhere. They don't want war. They don't want fighting. There is the Taliban over here and the Afghan government and the Americans over here and they are kind of stuck in the middle. I think what they really want is order. They want security for them and their families."
Obama Team "Taken Aback" By Cost Projections The New York Times also says the President "is expected to approve a version of the plan in coming days," but "even members of Mr. Obama's national security team appeared taken aback by the cost projections of the program, which range from $10 billion to $20 billion over the next six or seven years." The Times notes that "by comparison, the annual budget for the entire Afghan government, which is largely provided by the United States and other international donors, is about $1.1 billion."
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The Hill reports that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (R), who faces a primary challenge from former Rep. Pat Toomey (R), "dismissed talk that he will leave his party to become a Democrat" and said he will run as a Republican.
A Quinnipiac University poll out yesterday shows Ohio Republican Senate candidates Rob Portman and Mary Taylor have closed on the two Democrats in the race over the last month, but still trail. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) leads Portman 41%-33% and Taylor 41%-31%, while Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) leads Portman 39%-34% and Taylor 38%-31%.
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The AP reports that the RNC raised $5.1 million during Michael Steele's "first month as chairman despite a rocky start that has drawn concern and complaints from corners of his party," "roughly" the same as what the party raised in January before he was elected. The Washington Post adds, "The February report likely buys Steele some time although it doesn't offer conclusive evidence to answer the questions swirling around him."
The Washington Post reports that ex-DNC Chief Terry McAuliffe (D), a Virginia gubernatorial candidate, invokes President Obama's name in a new 60-second radio spot aimed at black voters in the southern part of the state, saying he championed the state's presidential primary in 2008. CNN adds that spot, "of course, does not mention McAuliffe's outspoken backing of Hillary Clinton before the 2008 Virginia Democratic primary - a contest Obama won with the support of 90 percent of the state's African-American voters."
Roll Call reports Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R) is pondering a primary challenge to Sen. Bob Bennett (R), concerned about Bennett's support for the Wall Street bailout package, and expects to make a decision by the end of the month.
The Hill reports, "Outside organizations have poured more than $1 million into the" NY20 special election "in just the past seven days," according to reports, with spending fairly evenly split between the two parties and their supporters.
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Jay Leno: "AIG, which already received $170 billion in taxpayers' money, paid $165 million in bonuses." But "they say the bonuses are justified because the company made an extra $170 billion last year."
Jimmy Kimmel: "In...worthless drain on taxpayer money news, insurance giant AIG is on the hot seat because after they took billions of dollars in bailout money," it "gave $165 million out in bonuses to their executives." So now, "lawmakers are demanding that they give the money back. The problem, though, is that legally they're entitled to the money so it's a dilemma. But I have an idea I think might satisfy all of us and also adhere to the letter of the law. ... I say, instead of mailing the bonus checks to their houses, we put rocks on them and we put them at the bottom of an enormous piranha tank. We set it up in the middle of Times Square. You want the money, swim. There it is."
Jimmy Fallon: "George Bush is writing a book. No, that's not the joke. It's a serious book about the 12 toughest decisions he made as President. It's called 'The Ten Toughest Decisions I Made As President.' It's...a good book. It's a pop-up book."
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