A I G (A little Integrity Goes a long way)

Everyone is commenting about the millions in bonuses that AIG (Assholes in Gaga-land?) just paid out to hundreds of executives, many of whom work or worked (making their "retention bonuses" absurd) in the division responsible for the firm's near-implosion. Maureen Dowd of The New York Times is outraged and thinks the government should just breach the contracts and take back the money. Barney Frank is beyond apopleptic. Chuck Grassley thinks (then thought better of saying) that the bonus recipients should resign and commit hari kari, like the shamed samurai of old and the shamed Japanese executives of recent years. Lawrence Cunningham, a GWU law professor, laid out, in true lawlerly form, the various legal avenues through which the government might seek to abrogate the contracts on which the bonus payments were based.

The only sensible commentary has come from my sage, Tom Friedman, who has opined that if we start the business of breaking our contracts, we sacrifice the rule of law on which our democratic system is based, and suggested that the AIG people should just give back the money. Friedman noted, in his Times Op-Ed piece today, that the teachers in his town's school district voluntarily gave up their 5% pay increases this year to prevent layoffs and service cuts for students (to the tune of $89 million). That, not senseless suicide (sorry, Chuck) is honorable sacrifice. President Obama has been telling us that we all need to pull together and do what it takes to get the nation back on its feet again. And we, the taxpayers, are doing our part. The President should now use his moral authority to silence Dowd, Frank, Grassley, Cunningham, and the rest of the blowhards, critics, pundits, and know-nothings, and speak directly to the Absolute Idiotic Greedheads who got the money. He should say, you are wrong to keep it. You need to give it back. The American people are sacrificing while you are awash in ill-gotten gains.

The bonuses represent a moral, not a legal issue, and should be approached purely from that perspective. The law is not always moral, but the President is not a legislator. He is our chief executive and the leader of the free world. Beyond saying what needs to be said, Mr. Obama should put the names of all the AIG employees receiving bonuses on a government website, with an indication next to each name of how much the person has received (in total compensation, not just bonuses) and whether he or she has given the bonus money back to the company. The bonus recipients have the right to act immorally, but they do not have the right to do it in secret, when the money they are receiving is coming from public funds. If they do not feel guilt after hearing the President's words, they will surely feel shame. And we can all be proud that we are doing the right thing.