AIG scandal a learning opportunity?

WASHINGTON -- Republicans finally found some use for their month-old Dina Titus ambush video.

Confronted by a camera-wielding stranger (who turned out to be a GOP operative), Democrat Titus said that she had read the mammoth economic stimulus bill that was moving quickly through Congress in mid-February.

That certainly would make Titus one of the most diligent inhabitants of Capitol Hill, as the bill ran more than a thousand pages and had been made public only a short time before.

Or more than likely it was a polite way for the congresswoman to blow off someone trying to goad her.

But now with the news that a little noticed provision in the bill allowed for bonuses to be paid to the execs of the AIG insurance company and some other bailed out financial firms, Republicans are dusting off their Titus video as they seek to make hay out of scandal.

Did Titus really read the bill or not?, the National Republican Congressional Committee wanted to know in a press release it was circulating today. And if she did, does that mean she approved of the so-called "AIG loophole?"

"Titus can't have it both ways this time," NRCC communications director Ken Spain said.

Titus had not finished the bill, her aide Andrew Stoddard said this afternoon. But even so, it would have been near-impossible to discern the significance of a few words that would have meant little to anybody a month ago. The grandfather clause exempted bailout contracts signed last year from limits on executive compensation.

"She certainly would have preferred more time to examine the legislation but when our country is losing 600,000 jobs a month, 20,000 jobs a day, as a result of the failed economic policies of the past year, Congress needs to take action quickly to try to reverse our economic slide," Stoddard said.

The provision on executive compensation "should not have been in there, and she was disappointed and angered that it was," Stoddard said, adding that Titus voted yesterday to force return of the bonuses.

Titus believes the episode "is an example of why we need to have more openness in government," the aide said.

Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation, a good-government group, says the AIG scandal can be turned into an educational opportunity.

It's no secret that few members of Congress have the time (or the inclination in many cases) to read every bill that comes to the floor let alone huge ones being rushed through by leadership.

It's clear, Miller says, that "13 hours wasn't enough time to read the 1,100 page stimulus bill."

So the foundation is circulating a petition calling on Congress to post all nonemergency bills and conference reports to the Internet for at least 72 hours before bringing them up for debate.

If readers are interested, the petition is here.