UNDER THE RADAR

ECONOMY -- FRANK: IT'S 'NONSENSICAL' TO RETAIN AIG EMPLOYEES TO UNDO THE MESS THEY CREATED: Edward Liddy, the CEO of the bailed-out insurance giant AIG, will testify on Capitol Hill this morning, "where he'll reluctantly defend millions of dollars’ worth of bonuses doled out to employees" despite the government bailout. On the front page of the New York Times’ business section yesterday, economic writer Andrew Sorkin argued in favor of paying out the AIG bonuses. He cited "the sanctity of contracts" to warn that "the business community" would panic if the government started "abrogating contracts left and right." Yesterday, The Progress Report sat down with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. When asked to respond to Sorkin’s claim that only AIG employees can navigate the economy out of the mess they created, Frank dismissed it as "nonsensical." "If they really understood what they did in the first place, seriously, they probably wouldn’t have done much of it. Secondly, when you are trying to undo something, it is often not the case that the people who did it are the ones to put in place," Frank said. Earlier this week, Frank called for the firing of AIG executives who presided over the collapse of their firm. "[M]aybe it’s time to fire some people. We can’t keep them from getting the bonuses, but we can keep some of them from continuing in their jobs," he said.

CONGRESS -- REPUBLICANS WHO BLOCKED SALARY CAPS NOW OUTRAGED OVER AIG BONUSES: As outrage mounts over the $165 million in executive bonuses paid to AIG staffers, many Republicans are trying to tap into the wellspring of public anger. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) condemned the "outrageous situation" and boasted that he had been "complaining about the way AIG had been doing its business" since October. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) agreed: "A lot of these people should be fired, not awarded bonuses. This is horrible. It’s outrageous." However, when Congress debated capping the salaries and bonuses for Wall Street executives whose firms accepted federal TARP funds, these same Republican leaders balked. "I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do," McConnell said. "It should be up to the board of directors of a private corporation to set the compensation of an executive; it shouldn’t be Congress's role," Shelby agreed. McConnell's past opposition to capping Wall St. compensation didn't stop him from going on CNN and suggesting that he had favored such caps all along. When CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked whether Congress should "have passed salary caps on these bailed out companies," McConnell replied, "We certainly had a chance with the amendment by Senator Snowe to prevent this kind of bonuses from being paid."

CIVIL RIGHTS -- OBAMA TO SIGN U.N. GAY RIGHTS DECLARATION: Last December, President Bush refused to support an unprecedented U.N. declaration calling for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Sixty-six countries -- including all 27 European Union members, Japan, Australia, and Mexico -- signed the declaration "to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests, or detention." The United States joined China, Russia, the Vatican, and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in opposition. At the time, human rights advocates slammed Bush for "trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right." But in a sharp reversal from Bush, the Obama administration has "notified the declaration's French sponsors that the [U.S.] wants to be added as a supporter." "In the words of the United States Supreme Court, the right to be free from criminalization on the basis of sexual orientation 'has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom,' " an official said yesterday. This marks the second time that President Obama has signaled his outright rejection of Bush-era attitudes toward gay rights. Last month, the United States supported a separate proposal to condemn "all forms of discrimination and all other human rights violations based on sexual orientation" at the U.N.'s Durban Review Conference on racism and xenophobia in Geneva.