From AIG bonus checks may be taxed at up to 100%, says Sen. Chuck Schumer:

"They should voluntarily return them. If they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.

"To those of you getting these bonuses: be forewarned, you will not be getting to keep them."

Cuomo, in a letter to Congress, said he had learned that 11 AIG executives who got retention bonuses of over $1 million no longer even work there.

In total, Cuomo said, the top 10 bonus recipients at AIG shared a combined $22 million, 73 got more than $1 million and the most handsomely paid got a whopping $6.4 million.

Schumer called it "Alice in Wonderland business practices" to give bonuses to executives at a firm that lost nearly $100 billion last year and had to be rescued with $170 billion in taxpayer money.

"It boggles the mind," he said.

Isn't Schumer adorable when he gets all outraged?

So answer me this, because I feel like am missing something here : Where was he when TARP was being written up? What exactly did he do to ensure that the books of these financial institutions saw the day light and came under the scrutiny needed to prevent this kind of chicanery?

And for that matter, where was he along with the whole NY State Congressional delegation all these years? What were they doing to make sure Wall Street was accountable for their gains in good times and in bad?

This is not a rhetorical question. You guys know more about the trappings of the NY politicosphere way more than I do. Was he really a crusader?  read more »

United States Senator Charles Schumer today joined Democrat Bill Stachowski in Buffalo to announce that he was endorsing Stachowski in his campaign for the New York State Senate.

Schumer orchestrated the Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate in 2006 and is leading the effort to expand on that majority in this year's election. Despite his very busy schedule, New York's senior senator made time to support Stachowski and appear at events in the 58th State Senate District, where he noted how important it is to have partners like Stachowski in Albany.  read more »

Glass houses, meet stones: republican Senator Ted Stevens, notorious for referring to the internet as 'a series of tubes' and for being so ostentatiously corrupt that he managed to attract the attention of even the rabidly politicized Bush Justice Department, came out swinging today, referring to Senator Charles Schumer as stupid.

Yes, of course there's video.

Stevens is being challenged by former Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. Show the man some love and help raise the tone in the Senate, here.

I heard Senator Schumer speak at the NYSDC Fall Meeting; the speech, to summarize, was one long glowing exposition of how wonderfully the Congressional Democrats were doing, and how, if we're just patient, give them a bigger majority and wait until 2009, everything will come up roses, and pretty pink ponies will fly through the sky.

The audience, of course, clapped enthusiastically, as we bloggers simply stood there and shook our heads in amazement.

Today, The New York Times editorial page took issue with Schumer and his capitulation caucus.

Abdicate and Capitulate

It is extraordinary how President Bush has streamlined the Senate confirmation process. As we have seen most recently with the vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, about all that is left of “advice and consent” is the “consent” part...  read more »

An interesting tidbit via Daily Kos: it appears that a group of people decided to show their lack of amusement at Chuck Schumer's vote for Michael Mukasey by staging a protest in front of his office.

Imagine, there's even a video.

What's interesting about this simply this: New York electeds are used to essentially doing whatever they want without consequence. Support a bigot for a judgeship, no biggie. Support someone who can't say that waterboarding is torture, or that the law binds even the President, equally, it appears, not a big deal.

Guess these folks didn't get the memo titled Shut Up and Clap. Good for them.