Even one of the fiercest critics of CEO compensation, Harvard Law School's Lucian Bebchuk, reports in recent research with Alma Cohen and Charles Wang that golden parachutes do motivate CEOs to find merger-and-acquisition opportunities and, as a result, to extract more takeover premiums for shareholders.

WSJ: In Defense of the CEO

Army Secretary Togo West wrote Cohen in a memo that Roland Charles didn't qualify for an Arlington gravesite based on his service.

CNN: AllPolitics - Cohen Intervened To Allow Arlington Burial

Robert Charles, chief of staff and general counsel to the House National Security Committee, wrote Cohen last July after the Army refused to grant a burial site for his father, Roland W. Charles Jr.

CNN: AllPolitics - Cohen Intervened To Allow Arlington Burial

West and a spokesman for Cohen, in interviews with the AP, said the reversal was based on compassion for Charles, not on political considerations.

CNN: AllPolitics - Cohen Intervened To Allow Arlington Burial

CNN's Tom Cohen, Kevin Liptak, Jim Acosta and Paul Steinhauser and CNNMoney's Jeanne Sahadi and Charles Riley contributed to this report.

CNN: Romney condemns Obama's 'assault on our economic freedom'