A statement from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee: "Before Wall Street executive Scott Murphy gets carried away with ‘top-secret' meetings in the White House situation room, he must first answer to the voters of upstate New York. For now, those middle-class taxpayers have only one question for Murphy - why did he so blindly endorse a loophole that gave millions in taxpayer-funded bonuses to AIG executives?" In the NY-20 special election, the economy is the sole issue. Jennifer Rubin notes that the seat could be the first casualty of the AIG bonus scandal. Murphy says he would have voted for the stimulus--which included protections for AIG's bonuses--while Tedisco has come out hard against the stimulus in the last few days.