So when it was revealed last week that big shots at federal bailout beneficiary A.I.G. collected $165 million in bonuses after having helped drive their company to the brink of oblivion, it didn't sit well with a lot of us. (Your average employee might get a bonus once in a while, but only for doing something good.)
There was anger to spare among the demonstrators who gathered at the Fairfield and Westport homes of some A.I.G. bonus recipients, hoping, perhaps, to shame them into giving the money back. The taxpayers, after all, now own 80 percent of the company.
A lot of the leftover anger is sure to be directed at Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, who will have been in office for 30 years by the time the 2010 election rolls around but, the way things look now, won't be around for 31.
Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, looked pretty foolish last Wednesday admitting that he and his staff played a key role in protecting the A.I.G. bonuses in an amendment to the recent massive federal bailout bill. Dodd, a recipient of large campaign contributions from A.I.G., made the admission just 24 hours after he denied knowing anything about the amendment.
Far be it from us to suggest that Dodd's version of the truth on Wednesday meant that he wasn't telling the truth on Tuesday. But perhaps we can be guided by this observation over the weekend by columnist Fred Barnes: "It's easy to keep your story straight when you're telling the truth. It gets harder when you're not."
Dodd was having a bad week, even without the A.I.G. mess. The Hartford Courant reported that an executive at mortgage giant Countrywide Financial overrode the company's loan-writing policies to give a discount to Dodd in 2003, according to an internal Countrywide document turned over to congressional investigators. There was no direct evidence that Dodd was aware at the time that he was getting a discount, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
And Dodd raised eyebrows last year when he moved his family to the caucus state of Iowa, making it easier for him to pursue his presidential candidacy.
Even before last week's unpleasantness, Dodd had been running about even with former Republican congressman Rob Simmons in polls of next year's Senate race. If Dodd's support tanks any further, Connecticut Democrats may be looking to replace him as their nominee, perhaps settling on the extremely popular Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
When columnists start using your name as a punchline - as in, "Dodd man walking," or "Dance of the living Dodd," two headlines we saw last week, you know you're in trouble. Dodd's goose may be cooked.