Neither Darrell Issa Nor Hank Greenberg Ever Went To Prison For Their Crimes And Today They Were In Congress Together

Darrell Issa, on behalf of the House Republican caucus, objected, strenuously, to disgraced former A.I.G. CEO Maurice Greenberg (AKA, "Hank") testifying yesterday at a Financial Services Committee hearing. Why should a crook like Greenberg be allowed to give testimony in front of Congress? Issa has a point, although it begs the question of why a crook like Issa and most of his colleagues be allowed to speak in the Capitol as well. What's off is that Greenberg has been a longtime heavy donor to the kinds of Republican politicians whose deregulation mania allowed criminal bankster types like himself to stretch their wings-- and fly away with billions of dollars of the public's money. Sure, like most businessmen, Greenberg tossed a few bucks to each corrupt Inside-the-Beltway party, but aside from some small donations to Democrats in charge of major committees, his hundreds of thousands of dollars went to Republicans willing to see the country court financial ruin by scrapping Glass-Steagal-- Republicans like Rob Portman (OH), Jon Kyl (AZ), David Dreier (CA), Susan Collins (ME), John McCain (AZ), and, of course George W. Bush (TX)-- not to mention the immense sums he gave the RNC, that trickled down even to the likes of lowlife backbenchers and small-time hoods like Issa.

Yesterday Greenberg did give some self-serving predictable testimony in front of the committee and didn't implicate any of his Republican cronies in anything that would land any of them in prison. He blamed the failure of the bailout-- and everything else-- on the fact that he was fired from AIG (for corruption).

“The current management team continues to work through extremely adverse conditions to pay back the American taxpayer,” Herr said.

Liddy, who was appointed to run AIG by the U.S. in September, said in a Washington Post opinion piece last month that the “most egregious” of mistakes happened in 1987 under Greenberg, when the company “strayed from its core insurance” business and started the Financial Products business.

Greenberg previously blamed his successors for the insurer’s near-collapse in written testimony for an October hearing. Martin Sullivan, the CEO for three years until June, and Robert Willumstad, who ran AIG for three months until the U.S. takeover, both blamed accounting rules.

Greenberg reiterated a proposal that the U.S. should extend AIG’s federal loan duration to 20 years from five years and cut the U.S. stake to 15 percent from almost 80 percent to encourage private investment. The U.S. previously extended the loan from two years. AIG shares have declined more than 90 percent in the past 12 months.

Issa, as usual, had nothing of value to add but there was a fascinating dialogue between Greenberg and Rep Elijah Cummings (D-MD):

Cummings- "When you refer to management, are you including yourself in that category?"

Greenberg- "No."

Cunnings- "You don't see your role in the company as being part of the failure -- is that what you're saying?"

Greenberg: "Yes. When I left the company, it was a healthy company. . . . We had no problems."

[Cummings pointed out that just one day after Greenberg left, AIG's debt rating was downgraded-- the event that precipitated the unraveling-- "as a result of the failures that occurred on your watch... Do you accept any responsibility at all for the events leading up to that critical moment?"

Greenberg-- "No, I don't. Nothing to do with me whatever."

Hubris? Sure, that and the sick, demented Republican mind.