COVERITLIVE.COM

2:01

Jason Linkins - Good afternoon, and welcome to this special Huffington Post LiveChat. My name is Jason Linkins, and I am the editor of the "Eat The Press" blog. Our guest today, is the man behind "The Cafferty File," seen every day in the Situation Room on CNN, Jack Cafferty. Jack, you out there?

2:01	Jack Cafferty - Hello Jason.

2:02	Jason Linkins - Good to meet you, sir, and welcome. I'd like to begin by stipulating that this will not be a "Twitterview." I hope that you will feel free to be as prolix as you like, no 140-character limitations.

2:03	Jack Cafferty - Great. Ready for the first question...

2:05

Jason Linkins - We've got questions stacked up and coming in from commenters, but let's start with today's big news, AIG. The outrage is clearly palpable, but so much uncertainty remains: First, what did the Obama administration know about these bonuses in advance of this past weekend, and what's supposed to happen now: clawback, litigation, hari-hiri? What are your thoughts on this road forward?

2:11

Jack Cafferty - Apparently no one in Washington knows how permission for AIG to pay these bonuses got into the bill in the first place. This is what happens when Congress votes on stuff without reading it. The other thing that has an odor in all of this is the fact that Pres. Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd both received more than $100,000 from AIG. No quid pro quo that we know of but it smells. CNN's Mary Snow reported on these bonuses in January. And Washington just found out about them last week? Preposterous. But the thing that's most troubling is that the AIG situation drives home the extent to which America's large corporations control much of what goes on in Washington. We taxpayers have handed AIG $170 billion and the White House wants to jerk our veterans around when it comes to their war-related injuries in order to save $540 million.

2:12	Jason Linkins - A good question on this subject from a commenter, George: "Do you think it is time to give more of a role for Volcker over Mr. Summers? Geithner?"

2:13	Jack Cafferty - I don't know about Volcker or Summers but the AIG situation has Geithner looking like a deer in the headlights.

2:14

Jason Linkins - Jim Nimmo asks: "In the 'old days' a new President got 100 days to 'settle in' before his performance was reviewed. Has 24/7 cable news coverage reduced this grace period or is it the enormous problems facing our country that is driving this need to see instant results? Are we asking for too much too soon?"

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