Will Congress stop the mob mentality and accept the blame?

Little in our congressional history can match the ridiculous behavior of this past week's hearings and mob scene over these bailout bonuses, written into a contract Congress hastily made in the final months of the Bush administration and early weeks of Obama's. They have embarrassed the entire country and the new President acting like gangs of thugs looking for blood. The bonuses are "retention contracts" to save AIG--or does Congress want to destroy a company it just bought? And $165 million is pennies next to the trillions they are sprinkling around, including to the willing hands of my own wealthy suburban government here in Ohio, and the combined losses to our retirement funds and other investments. The phony outrage is cover for the fact that neither Geithner or Paulson nor Congress or Bernacke have a clue about how to "bailout" the economy--they should have just let it recover on its own with the laws and regulations already in place and stop trying to "save" bad investments and failed government programs. A decade of failed programs in the 1930s and 40s taught them nothing except how to throw good money after bad.

“WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confirmed yesterday that his department urged Sen. Chris Dodd to water down the executive-bonus limits included in last month's stimulus bill, a move that allowed the payment of $165 million in bonuses to American International Group employees.

As the House readied legislation to crack down on the outrage-inspiring bonuses, Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Banking Committee, and Geithner appeared at odds over who was really responsible for Congress' failure to prevent them in the first place.

Dodd, on the defensive over a loophole that enabled the bonuses to go forward, claimed the Obama administration insisted he modify his proposal to rein in bonuses at companies getting billions of dollars in financial bailouts so that it would only apply to payments agreed to in the future - thus clearing the way for the AIG payouts.” From Combined News Services report.

I hope the President enjoyed looking silly on Jay Leno's program; I awoke for a moment and heard him stammering at one soft ball questions, and pushed "click" for the 1970s reruns. Apparently the teleprompter (i.e. TOTUS) wasn't allowed on stage. See his blog for more on Obama's ad libs and the embarrassment it causes TOTUS.