In today’s Washington Times, new evidence surfacedto show how U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd handled the people’s business. Reporters  Jennifer Haberkor and Jerry Seper lift  the veil on the fundraising operation of Team Dodd and its  willingness of AIG officials to help their man as he rose to the top job on the Senate Banks and Urban Affairs Committee after the 2006 election.

 While Dodd and other  DC regulars will dismiss the Washington Times as a right-wing rag, there is no rebuttal on the core evidence it provides – an internal AIG memorandum that urges its executives to make the maximum $4,600 donation to the Senator’s 2010 reelection fund.

The message in the Nov. 17, 2006, e-mail from Joseph Cassano, AIG Financial Products chief executive, was unmistakable: Mr. Dodd was “next in line” to be chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which oversees the insurance industry, and he would “have the opportunity to set the committee’s agenda on issues critical to the financial services industry. 

“Given his seniority in the Senate, he will also play a key role in the Democratic Majority’s leadership,” Mr. Cassano wrote in the message, obtained by The Washington Times.

And, $160,000 later, Chris Dodd has some working capital. Dodd then shifted it over to his failed Presidential race, which was funded in large part, by other banks and mega-financial institutions. As we now know, Sen. Dodd gave in to the Obama administration on the issue of executive bonuses and those targeted at AIG officials.

And always be wary when someone prefaces their remarks with the phrase – “let me be clear.”

So, Sen. Dodd said after being confronted with the facts about the AIG bonuses:

“Let me be clear: I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week,” Dodd told CNN last week. “I agreed reluctantly. I was changing the amendment because others were insistent.”

The donations were legal, no one is disputing that, no one has ever said otherwise. The Times story merely confirms what the Connecticut voter is being to appreciate – that for many years, Chris Dodd has been a willing surrogate for many large banks and financial groups that are not interested in following the rules of the free market and are always looking for the government to either protect them from competition or bail them out when they are exposed for  incompetence or malfeasance.