Another Felon For Dodd To Get Pardoned?

As reported by the Washington Times yesterday and covered in this post (thanks to Moe at RedState for promoting it to the front page), AIG chief exec Joseph Cassano is an FOD (Friend of Dodd). He raised some $160k in a few months for Dodd by pressuring his peers and subordinates to pony up.

Well, it looks as though he may have more trouble than just getting caught trying to buy his way into Dodd's pocket. ABC reports that the feds are "closing in" on him for fraud. Perhaps part of the payback for Cassano for Dodd's fundraising will be a Presidential pardon at the senator's request on Obama's way out, like Dodd did with felon and BFF Edward Downe when Clinton was heading home.

This Hot Air post by Ed Morrissey also raises questions about whether the AIG employees were used as strawmen to funnel cash to Dodd. At this point, I don't think anything would surprise me.

Ed also links to an NRO post describing the first time Dodd created massive, taxpayer funded windfall legislation with the primary beneficiary being AIG.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act privatizes profit and socializes risk. Though he voted for the Homeland Security Act, even conservative Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) voted against the insurance measure, dubbing it "a windfall."

One of the big winners will be American International Group (AIG), the world's second-largest financial conglomerate and largest U.S. underwriter of commercial and industrial insurance. CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was instrumental in persuading leaders of both parties to give insurance companies a handout in the event of losses ascribed to terrorism...

The federal program, which will pay out insurance company claims for losses up to $100 billion, will be triggered once the insurance industry sustains only $5 million in terror losses... The lead sponsor of the original Senate version was Democrat Chris Dodd, who represents the insurance capital, Connecticut.

Like our new lefty leaders love to believe, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, whether it is an economic downturn or a terrorist attack.

H/T to Karl at Patterico's Pontifications.