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March 16, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:36
March 16, 2009, Monday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 247 Podcast.
Boy, it's amazing what can happen when you're gone for two days.
You're gone for two days before I left the golden EIB microphone a few days ago.
The teleprompter was telling President Obama to be negative.
And while I was away at my charity golf outing, the teleprompter told President Obama to be positive.
Obama's teleprompter is confident now.
Obama's teleprompter's positive.
Obama's teleprompter's bullish.
Obama's teleprompter told Larry Summers to tell you to buy stocks.
Everything's bullish out there.
We're back booked.
Hey, great to have you here.
Rush Limbaugh, a brand new week of broadcast excellence here on the Excellence and Broadcasting Network behind the golden EIB microphone telephone number.
If you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882, the email address L Rushmow at EIBNet.com political story yesterday.
Folks, they failed.
The Obama administration failed.
They're now moving off of me.
They say they've gotten as much out of targeting me as possible.
And the permanent campaign to destroy Republicans is moving on to another target or targets.
They came after L Rushbow and it didn't work.
I have to uh I have to tell you, folks, I I uh not many of you I know are not going to appreciate this.
You're not gonna like me saying this.
You aren't going to understand it.
You're gonna think I'm out of touch, lost touch, uh, and all of that.
But I'm I'm I'm laughing hysterically at all the hysteria this morning, and I am seeing everywhere, everywhere, including at Fox News, the hysteria over the AIG bailouts.
Let me tell you something, folks.
I am all for the AIG bailouts, and I am all for the AIG bonuses.
Well, I'm not for the bailout, but it well, in a way I'm for the bailout because I'm for the bonuses.
You see, uh, ladies and gentlemen, um I have all of my insurance policies or most of my insurance policies with AIG, and I would be I I would it would be a hassle for me if AIG went bankrupt, or if they were allowed to fail, I'd have to go out there and I'd because I've got you know, I'm a longtime customer of AIG, and as such I have preferred pricing like Chris Dodd got at countrywide.
Uh my preferred pricing is is simply because I'm a good customer, however.
Uh, and and because I'm a volume buyer, I have a lot of insurance.
I need a lot of insurance.
I have a lot of insurance with AIG.
If they went, if they went away, then it'd be a hassle.
I'd have to get with my broker, sit down, start all over again.
Prices wouldn't be as good.
Uh and I figure why shouldn't taxpayers bail out the company that underwrites my insurance?
I'm paying a bunch of people's mortgages out there.
Fair's fair, folks.
I mean, if I'm gonna bail out your mortgage and uh a bunch of other stuff, buy your gasoline and uh you know buy your home heating oil and so forth, the least you can do is underwrite the company that's buying my insurance or insuring all of my needs.
But seriously, this it is hysterical to watch this.
Because the dirty little secret is is that all these people getting all these bonuses are friends of Barack.
Most of the people on Wall Street who have their homes in the Hamptons and in San Francisco and Hollywood and Chicago and New York, most of these people are wealthy, filthy rich Democrats.
And a lot of this money is going straight to people who end up kicking it back to Obama in the form of campaign contributions and what have you.
Now, this AIG, the bailout, sorry, the bonuses, which uh came to light yesterday.
What is it, 156 or 165 billion?
What is it?
Uh I don't know.
It's it's it's chump change when you get down to brass tax.
Oh, it is.
I told you, I know you're not going to understand me.
You're not going to agree with me.
You're going to think I've lost touch.
We need, we need some perspective here.
10 what is it?
16.
Okay, 165 million in bonuses.
Right.
Okay, so they've got 170 billion in bailouts.
The bonuses Are 165 million?
The AIG bonuses are one-tenth of one percent of all the bailout money, not just for AIG, but for everybody else.
It's in their contracts.
These what is the number one asset any company has?
It's people.
It's employees.
This 165 million dollars in bonuses is going to help stimulate the economy.
It's going to stimulate the New York City economy.
165 million dollars, one-tenth of one percent of all I know the populist thing to do.
The popular thing to come and do here today and bang my fist and be outraged over how in the world can they use my taxpayer money this way.
Let me read to you why they can use our taxpayer money this way.
TARP.
Section one, short title, Emergency Stabilization Act, the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
Section two purposes provides authority to the Treasury Secretary to restore liquidity and stability to the U.S. financial system and to ensure the economic well-being of Americans.
Folks, there were no strings.
Congress attached no strings to the $700 billion TARP money.
Zilt Zero Nada.
They gave the Treasury Secretary, in this case, Geitner, at this point it was it was Hank Paulson last fall.
Total czar-like authority to do whatever he wanted with that money.
And I mean, there I warned you, I warned all of you back then about the unintended consequences of this.
You know what I what I want to know?
Here we have an we have an outrage of 165 million dollars, one-tenth of one percent of all the bailout money, because it's going to people that work at AIG, and they're Democrats.
You have to have the vast majority of all these people getting bailouts are wealthy, filthy rich Democrats.
Now, look, I'm not playing a class envy card.
I'm not doing anything of the sort.
I'm just telling you who these people are.
The people getting this bailout money, the companies are for the most part headed up by wealthy Democrats.
They are huge contributors.
They are donors to Democrat Party causes.
And I have to laugh at these headlines.
There's just a fascinating story here in the uh in the uh New York Times today.
Bracing for a bailout backlash.
Let me read this first paragraph to you.
The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks in Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress in the White House and could complicate President Obama's agenda.
Now, forgive me for pointing this out, but may I ask you to remember?
Who in hell has been trashing Wall Street every damn chance he gets when he stands in front of his teleprompter?
It is none other than the president of the United States, Barack Obama.
Anger at Financial Institute, he's the guy who's been saying, no more trips to Vegas, no more flights on the corporate jet, those days are over.
He has been blaming Wall Street since the campaign.
He has been dumping on Wall Street.
He's been dumping on the U.S. economy.
That is until I lift.
Then the teleprompted and rosy out there.
Anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House.
This story in the New York Times is reported as if Washington's unrelated to this mess.
Rather than central to it, Washington is central to the story.
They're not innocent bystanders, and yet they get to be portrayed, and they portray themselves as innocent bystanders at the same time.
Who do you think wrote the TARP bill?
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi.
They wrote it.
Did they put any accountability in it?
No.
They put any strings in it?
No.
They gave total authority to Treasury Secretary.
And yet, here's Congressman Frank on the Today Show today.
These people may have a right to their bonuses.
They don't have a right to their jobs forever.
The federal government now is the 80% owner.
It does appear to me we're rewarding incompetence.
So since the federal government now, thanks to the Federal Reserve's use of its power under that 70-year-old statute, now essentially owns that company.
Maybe it's time to fire some people.
We can't keep them from getting their bonuses, but we can keep some of them continuing in their jobs.
These people got retention bonuses.
Well, if they were in high school, they wouldn't have gotten retention, they would have gotten detention.
Here we go again.
We're upset over 165 million dollars.
Folks, in the grand scheme of the federal budget, this is chump change.
Do you know what we're paying to pay mortgages for people who can't pay their mortgages?
Do you know what we're paying people not to work?
It is outrageous.
Nobody is discussing here the outrage at the cost of government.
This is part of it.
Your government did this.
And this administration backed it up.
This administration Obama voted for this.
They get all upset here over 165.
Rush, it's the more don't talk to me, ladies and gentlemen, about morality here.
If you want to start talking morality, let's just circle the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and let's talk about the morality of what goes on in there with the money those people spend, the money they waste.
This money went to American citizens.
This money went mostly to American citizens who are registered Democrats.
These people who got the bonus are gonna spend it.
That's called private sector stimulus.
But Rush, but Russ, if our taxpayer does You have no reason to complain.
If you supported this in the first place, and if you support bailing out people's mortgages, people that can't pay them while you're having to pay yours.
You can't selectively complain, folks.
Once you vote big government, once you think it's the answer, you have to accept all the inefficiencies, you have to accept all the corruption, you have to accept all the outrageousness that you get, because you know, if using intelligence guided by experience that that's what's going to happen, particularly when there are no strings.
So now where are we?
Well, they got contracts, these clowns at AIG, so we can't take their bonuses back, but we can fire them.
So you got the federal government talking about firing people in the private sector.
Who are succeeding?
Do you ever talk about firing people in the government sector?
Do we ever hear about that?
You know, Nancy Pelosi's gut gall.
Here she is flying around in all these airport jets, wasting who knows what kind of money, being concerned about this.
She issued the following statement today on news reports that AIG is given 165 million dollars in bonuses to executives.
Here's what Miss America had to say.
While American workers see their wages decline and face record job losses, it is unconscionable that AIG would permit such extravagant executive compensation practices without any accountability to the taxpayer.
Ms. America, there's no accountability because you didn't put any in there.
The ones who got the bonuses did so on the basis of sales success.
These were reported as merit bonuses that they are contractually permitted to get.
If you violate their contract, if you don't give them their bonuses, you have got a lawsuit on your hands, and 80% of this company is now owned by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Pelosi, and so they would be sued.
The government would be sued by these people.
Now, I realize I realize that I'm on the short end of this stick.
I realize I'm in the minority here.
As I realize the popular thing is to trash AIG.
And trash this stuff that's going on and on about taxpayer dollars being wasted, and who do these rotten, dirty executives think they are?
But as I told you, folks, I'm not a man of polls, I'm a man of principle.
And this is chump change compared to the waste and the fraud that exists daily in the United States government.
Nancy Pelosi said, I have asked Chairman Barney Frank, who um you know who he reminds me of?
The Looney Tunes car, I think it was Looney Tunes cartoon character, Sylvester the Cat.
I told it for a putty tat.
I thought he tore a putty tat.
I thought I saw a bird.
To examine options legally available to recover taxpayer funds of companies that abuse the privilege of taxpayer assistance.
Larry Summers on uh Stephanopoulos's show yesterday was asked about this.
Steffi said, you know, I think a lot of people just don't understand how this can be, especially when these bonuses are going to the financial products division of the company, which brought the company down.
George, look, there are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last 18 months, but what's happened to AIG is the most outrageous.
What that company did, the way it was not regulated, the way no one was watching, what's proved necessary, it is outrageous.
We are a country of law.
There are contracts.
The government cannot just abrogate contracts.
Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by Secretary Geitner and by the Federal Reserve System.
Well, let's stand up and give him a standing ovation.
We're going to go back and we're going to get that money.
We're going to make sure that those slime balls gave themselves bonuses.
They pay a price for this.
We're not going to sit around and let all this happen.
Okay.
If you're mad about it, fine, folks.
Just do me a favor and be mad at far worse transgressions.
Waste and outrage that occurs every day at the seat of government in Washington, D.C. All right, a brief timeout.
We'll be back and continue after this again at 800-282-280.
I just saw this before the program started.
2882.
It's not 2880.
Don't say that.
It's 2882.
The phone number.
What do you say?
800-282-2882.
Never mind what I saw before the break.
The snurgly is seen to it, the moment's lost.
Back after this.
Before I left the golden EIB microphone a few days ago, Obama's teleprompter told him to be negative on the economy.
He was bashing the U.S. economy, bashing the U.S. stock market, bashing Wall Street every opportunity he got.
We all know why.
He wanted to uh he he wanted to create a crisis atmosphere and mentality so as to set government up as the solution to virtually every problem he thought and could convince people existed.
And that's why he started loading all of his Democrat pet projects, loading them up and trying to get them rammed through as quickly as he can.
Then I go on a couple days, charity golf outing, and Obama's teleprompter tells him to be positive.
Now we've got Obama's teleprompter's confident, teleprompter's positive, Obama's teleprompter's bullish, and they're telling everybody to go out there and bet the farm.
What do you suppose?
What was it you suppose turned Obama's teleprompter from catastrophe to confidence?
I don't think that it was the fact that I was away.
I mean, it could have been Warren Buffett rolling his eyes, or Jack Welch rolling his eyes, or the business council last week rolling its eyes, or it could have been the ChICOMs saying, you know what, we don't think the debt that we hold in the United States is secure and good.
Uh, wondering how much Obama's spending sprees will depreciate all of the debt that uh that they hold.
So Obama's teleprompter told the business community that it is confident.
He told the ChICOM community that uh the treasury bills, treasury notes, and treasury bonds are secure, and Obama's teleprompter is confident.
Now, why would the Obama teleprompter all of a sudden turn positive like this?
Uh are these all the possibilities, or are there others?
And I think one of the other possibilities is his approval numbers are not going well.
The latest Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll today shows that 36% of voters now strongly approve of the way Obama's performing.
32%, up from 29, strongly disapprove.
This gives President uh Obama an approval index rating of plus four.
That is the smallest or the lowest uh rating to date.
His overall approval is holding steady at around fifty-six percent.
But if you just take the strongly approves and subtract from that the strongly disapprove, 36 minus 32, you get four.
That's not a big spread.
The uh approval numbers are tanking, and he's got to keep his approval numbers up in order to get all these other things done that he wants to do.
Health care, uh cap and trade.
Uh and he also, ladies and gentlemen, wants to be able to raise taxes, as we know.
And you don't raise taxes in the midst of a great recession heading into a depression.
As he's been telling us is happening.
So if you want to raise taxes, and by the way, Daniel Henninger, uh this this this there was a story last Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.
I sent this to everybody I know.
Daniel Henniger had a great piece on what Obama's real plans are.
It's exactly what I told you.
It is returning the Nell Sh nation's wealth to its quote unquote rightful owners.
Charts, graphs, uh lines from Obama's budget and his books about what his real intents are about the top one, top two percent of uh wage earners and wealth in this country.
He wants to wipe them out and redistribute the money, and he needs tax increases to be able to do that.
He needs the perception the economy's coming back in order to be able to do that.
So all this talk is simply about furthering his agenda.
Okay, President Obama just started dumping an AIG in his uh little coming out party for small businesses in the East Room of the White House.
He said they got themselves into trouble because they were greedy, excessively greedy, yada yada yada yada yada, dumping on Wall Street again because it makes populist sense to do so.
He just started commenting on it when we uh in fact, our microphones are there.
Can we can we jip Obama ripping into AIG?
I just want to hear Yeah, let's I want to hear how he does it.
Obama wins the President Barack Obama ripping in the I want everybody to be clear that Secretary Geitner has been on the case.
He's working to resolve this matter with a new CEO, Edward Liddy.
Oh, yeah, who, by the way, uh everybody needs to understand came on board after the contracts that led to these bonuses.
It's a Democrat, a good Democrat.
Absolutely, yes, yes, yes, yep.
But great C. And certainly everybody involved needs to understand this is not just a matter of dollars and cents.
It's about our fundamental values.
Right.
Exactly.
All across the country, there are people who are working hard and meeting their responsibilities every single day.
And we're paying for government bailouts or multimillion dollar bonuses.
You got a bunch of small business people here who are struggling just to keep their credit line open.
Uh, as one of the bail them out, entrepreneurs uh talked about.
They are bail them out.
In some cases mortgaging their homes and doing a whole host of things.
Why are you letting them suffer bail them out?
Bail out AIG.
What we ask is that everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, play by the same rules.
Bail them out then.
That is an ethic that we have to demand.
Bail them out.
And what this situation also underscores is the need for overall financial regulatory reform.
So we don't find ourselves in this position again.
Bail them out.
And for some form of resolution mechanism in dealing with troubled financial institutions so that we've got greater authority to protect American taxpayers and our financial system in cases such as this.
You mean we already have uh uh resolution authority.
Excuse me, I'm how you feel up with anger here.
Teleprompter said costs.
Uh we always already have some of that resolution authority when it comes to a a traditional bank.
But when you start getting into AIGs and some of these other operations, we bailed them out.
Have a whole bunch of different financial instruments, uh, then we don't have all the f uh regulatory uh power that we need, and this is something that I expect to work with Congress uh to deal with uh in the weeks and months to come.
All right.
Bail them out, though.
Well, uh, we're here today to talk about how my administration can help the millions of small businesses bearing the brunt of this.
All right, that's it.
So he really didn't do much except praise the current AIG CEO.
He made an appointment that the current CEO is a guy who passed out the bonuses.
Guy named Liddy, Edward Liddy, no relation to Scooter.
This guy passes out the bonuses because it contracts at AIG, and he comes in for praise from Obama.
Now, what does that tell you?
And Obama made the point hey, uh he came in here long after all this stuff started.
He came out, he didn't have anything to do with Democrat.
It means Liddy's a Democrat.
Which which leads me, uh, ladies and gentlemen, to uh uh another point.
Uh this this New York Times story talking about how Obama, the Democrats, you know, for all their talk, and they're always talking about senior citizens and working people.
And here was Obama just now.
He was talking about the pain and suffering of small business, was he not?
And they can't get credit.
They're gonna have a little, they're gonna have another one of these it's a summit here today, and they're gonna go out to breakout groups, they're gonna come back and report on what ought to be done with uh with small businesses.
They're always talking about the little people, senior citizens, working people, but these clowns in the Obama administration are spending far more than Bush and the Republicans ever imagined to bail out their buddies.
Most of these Manhattan business types are Democrats, not Republicans.
What we have here in the Obama administration is a bunch of Ivy League eggheads who have never managed a thing, and they are working hand in hand with these big Wall Street types.
I mean, they can sit there and complain about bonuses and all the rest, but they created this situation.
They are funding failure.
They are making us all pay for it.
Everybody has forgotten that all of this financial problem has roots in the subprime mortgage and housing crises, and both of those crises were started by government officials.
All of the pressure on lending institutions to lend money to people who had no hope of ever qualifying, much less being able to pay it back.
All that was done on purpose by government officials.
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, President Clinton, the community redevelopment reinvestment act, whatever, whatever it's called.
And they create the government created this situation.
They are funding failure.
I said a couple of weeks ago, isn't it time that we pronounced the political cure to this a failure?
All these bailouts have led to no resuscitation on the part of the bailed-out firms.
And the bailed out firms are now starting to say, no, we don't want the money.
We wish we'd never taken the money.
We should give the money back because they don't like all the controls on the business that are now part and parcel of having accepted the money.
So they're funding failure, they're propping up failure, they're making us pay for it.
There is not a single businessman who has manufactured something or been involved in import-export, advising this administration.
They are all Ivy League academics.
They are one of the same mind in most cases.
The Ivy League elites running this show right now, including Obama, Larry Summers, Geitner.
Where are the real businessmen who actually create jobs and create wealth?
You will not find one in the Obama administration.
So these eggheads and Ivy League elites are bailing out these failed big institutions.
They are providing endless welfare programs for those who have made poor decisions or who are poor on the other end, but they're killing the rest of us.
Even though Obama uses the middle class term to define all he is doing, he's doing just the opposite.
He's bailing out people that can't pay their mortgages.
He's bailing out failed Wall Street Titans.
Like he loves the guy running AIG right now.
AIG just makes everybody mad by awarding 165 million dollars in bonuses, but Obama makes it plain and makes a point to single out the CEO at AIG as a great guy and absolve him of anything to do with any of this.
Because these are his buddies.
They are running the show.
Geitner Summers, Obama, bailing out these big institutions, providing endless welfare programs.
And by the way, I'm not talking about class warfare here.
I'm talking about what they're doing.
If they if they raise taxes, if if they if they get rid of impediments, I mean if they cut taxes, if they just slash them, eliminate them, get rid of the impediments to success.
If they help create an economic environment, promotes wealth creation, these big institutions are probably still go under because they've destroyed themselves.
They've got too much debt.
We're trying to prop up failures because of who's at these failures.
All these people have giant homes in the Hamptons, second homes and ski resorts, and by all means we have to keep them in their homes.
Now I'm not, this is not class envy.
Do not misunderstand.
I'm talking about all these Ivy League eggheads hanging together and protecting their own.
They're all liberal Democrats, the vast majority of them are, and they're not going to be the humiliated root of Bernie Madoff.
They're not going to be kicked out of their penthouse apartments, they're not going to be kicked out of their summer places in the Hamptons or wherever.
They're not going to give up the parties.
They're not going to give up the social circuit.
So they're going to get bailed out.
They're going to get saved, regardless the damage they've done to these companies and the people who've invested in them.
The rest of society is going to keep on paying for this.
Those who are poor or made poor decisions were going to have to participate in improving themselves despite setbacks, as we all have.
Or they won't uh they won't succeed either.
That's the way it works.
But to destroy the core of our system, to bail out failed institutions and send wealth to those who've not earned it, destroys the entire system.
And what's happening here is giant kickbacks back and forth from the administration to wealthy Democrats at these firms who are being bailed out.
The money will keep circulating in the form of campaign donations.
Can't let these people go under.
It would hurt the Democrat Party.
It's a fine line here.
I sound like class warfare, but what I'm saying is that this is about the Ivy League elitists, not the rich.
Per se.
This is about a certain segment of the rich protecting itself, protecting its political investment, Obama, Obama protecting their political investment in him.
These are not.
Well, let me tell you, these are the people who fund the Democrat Party.
That's who's being bailed out.
Just put it that simple.
These are the people who fund the Democrat Party.
They live in Manhattan, they live in the Hamptons, they live on the main line of Philadelphia.
They have giant penthouses in San Francisco, Tobknob Hill and so forth.
They live in Hollywood.
They are the heart and soul of the Democrat Party.
The really super rich parts of our country are heavily Democrat now.
We don't begrudge them.
We don't begrudge them their wealth, we don't begrudge it, but they begrudge us.
And these are among the people who now are being bailed out by the Obama administration.
Because the elites and the eggheads are hanging together.
By the way, I've seen a couple stories recently.
It's actually a good point.
Everybody says, but Rush, there may not be any business executives in the Obama administration, but see these are some of the best of the best from business schools that are running these companies.
Why is a business school at a major university like Harvard or Yale or Wharton and they well, why are they exempt from all the liberalism elsewhere at the university?
not.
You've got all these big business types.
They've been educated as and part of liberal dogma in the business.
What do you think they've been taught?
Well, we're seeing that they don't know how to run businesses.
We're seeing that they know how to run businesses into the ground, and we're also saying they know how to petition government to get bailed out.
Because they have greased the skids with donations, contributions, friendships, and the good old boys' network, but they're largely Democrats, they're largely eggheads, they're largely Ivy League elites.
That's who's uh circling the wagons to protect themselves with all this.
And it's and and when Obama comes out and trashes these people, he doesn't really mean it, and they know it.
He they know he's just got to sound populist to sound like he relates to you.
But these bailout these uh this uh again, the uh bonuses, one-tenth of one percent of all bailout money so far, roughly.
Quick time out, we'll be back.
Phone calls, audio soundbites, galore coming up after this.
Already the emails are pouring in, Mr. Snurdley.
People wishing to take pot shots at their host.
I well, because of this Obama bailing out AIG business and the bonuses.
You know, I I said that this is just these people get their Democrats, uh, they're being treated well by government, they're being bailed out because it's uh you know cold's close clique of Ivy League uh rich Democrat eggheads and so forth.
And somebody said, But Rush, you even you even when you joined President Obama's address on your show, President Obama said that he's told Geitner to go out there and do everything he can to get the money back that went for these bonuses.
Oh, Tisk, Tisk, ladies and gentlemen, those of you, and it's a relatively few number who have emailed me disappointment.
You wound me to the heart because you're not listening.
Obama's statement is meaningless.
Already Geithner and Larry Summers have said there's nothing they can do.
AIG has contracts.
If they get this bonus money back, if they do not allow the bonus money to be paid, these employees of AIG can sue and get punitive damages.
Obama just said this.
The expiration date on this statement was one half second after he made it.
That statement's not even on the shelf anymore.
Here's what he said.
He said, Uh I I've I've um I've told uh Geitner to pursue every legal avenue, which means after the pursuit, they'll find there isn't one open.
Every legal avenue will have a stop sign.
There's nothing they can do.
But you're all you're supposed to hear is damn it, those greedy SOBs, I'm getting your money back, gang.
I'm Barack Obama, and I'm getting your money back.
By the way, he has this small business meeting as small business owners up there to talk about his plans for them.
Well, where where was the small business plan in the porculus bill?
Why even have to do this?
Why why weren't any plans for small business in the stimulus bill?
We have time for a quick phone call.
Let's grab uh Gangle Florida.
Rita, your first great to have you on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
Uh the media never mentioned the role of L. Elliot Spitzer in AIG's failure.
Because in in his lead up to his own.
Well, he was screwing them too.
He hounded Hank Greenberg out of the chairmanship and forced the board to install a successor to Hank Greenberg, who is acceptable to Elliot Spitzer.
That is you know what, Rita, you are exactly right.
That the Hank Greenberg is the uh former CEO of AIG who built it.
Over 40 years.
It was a sterling company.
And he was a major Republican.
I didn't I actually did not know that.
Yes.
All I know is three years later, they needed rescuing.
He's a major Republican and Republican donor.
And I I know Spitzer hated him.
Spitzer hated him.
Spitzer charged uh.
Well, you know what?
When you get he never officially charged Greenberg with anything.
Exactly.
He threatened to.
This panicked the AIG board, and they got rid of that that was how Spitzer operated.
Exactly.
He threatened all of these places, and Spitzer, I think, was in large part just getting rid of Republicans at these outfits.
Well, he was he was on his way to run for governor.
Nice populist causes he would take up and target executives.
Right.
So they get rid of Greenberg and uh three years after forcing Hank out, bam.
Exactly.
We're in the circumstance that we're in now with the current CEO who I've never met.
But I'm I mean, I'm not my insurance underwriters AIG.
And again, I'm happy for the bailout 'cause if I'm paying your mortgage, you can underwrite the company.
It's doing my insurance, folks, the way I now look at it.
Uh fair is fair, right?
But this new CEO, Liddy, was was singled out for praise by uh President Obama mere moments ago during the small business seminar.
Now who's in charge when these bonuses get paid out?
Ed Liddy, who was just singled out for praise by President Obama.
You connect the does.
Big news from yesterday.
Obama launches message war to sell budget.
A participant in the meeting described the push as a successor to the message that Rush Limbaugh's the party leader.
We've exhausted the use of rush as an attention getter.
A, they haven't, but B, it's an admission that they failed.
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