House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said he wanted to see the bonus money come back, but had no idea what to say about how to do this.

The Republican solution is to give the bonus recipients a tax cut.

Man, everytime I get frustrated with Obama/Geithner I perk up when I look over at the GOP and see how pathetic they have become.

How can an opposition party not exploit this AIG mess, not matter how craven?

Eric Cantor was completely discombobulated. Clearly he's not used to a member of the corporate-controlled media straying that far from Republican-supplied talking points.

Cantor is in a philosophical quandary. On one hand, he wants to go along with the Corporations Uber Alles wing of the Republican party, which believes that any taxpayer money that goes anywhere other than to millionaires and corporate donors is "wasteful government spending." On the other hand, he is drawn to Grover Norquist's economic flat earthers, who believe that all government spending is wasteful.

So instead he ends up looking like a partisan political hack -- posturing and blustering but refusing to actually do anything. Pathetic!

Watch Joe and Mika's extreme discomfort as O'Donnell does the job they're supposed to be doing. They rush to coddle and coo at Cantor after his traumatic experience of being asked to answer a direct question. These people are beyond revolting.

We know that a provision in the Stimulus bill that wouldve blocked the AIG bonuses was pulled after someone in the administration talked to Senator Dodd's staff.

I now believe the Obama Administration let the bonuses get paid so that:
(A) the GOP would become discombobulated;
(B) Americans would finally see that the money guys -- who were supposed to be allowed to reap multi-million-dollar bonuses in return for making our 401(k) plans grow -- had rigged the system so they'd get paid even if the put everybody in the poor house;
(C) with everybody mad because of (B) and the GOP suffering from (A), the Obama administration could push through an effective regulatory regime that would eliminate these abuses;
(D) and prepare everybody for the forthcoming fraud trials (because it appears AIG did some MAJOR fraud to hide their debt swap problems).

Once again, President Obama shows he's to smart for the village.

Once again, President Obama shows he's to smart for the village.

Oh, dear me. I'm a pretty big Obama fan and think a good portion of the suspicion and criticism directed at him from our ranks is unfounded, but please, y'all, stop with the Massively Convoluted Super Secret Brilliant Plan stuff. It's embarrassing.

What's Obama's plan to follow through? What's his end game?

This is what happens when foolish people grandstand without thinking.
To grandstand without thinking is just another way of saying "I'm a Republican!"

shortstop, I second your motion. Enough already.

please, y'all, stop with the Massively Convoluted Super Secret Brilliant Plan stuff. It's embarrassing.

:)

This is a complex issue and the GOP is right not to allow itself to be trapped by cheap gotcha journalism.

This is a complex issue and the GOP is right not to allow itself to be trapped by cheap gotcha journalism.
Yep, "What is your plan?" is obviously a trick question.

That was a really fun clip. Maybe there's some small sliver of hope for the soul of the MSM if we get more questioners like that guy.

So let me get this straight: They express outrage over the bonuses. Then they complain that the Pres. and the Sec. of Treasury knew about the bonuses and didn't do enough to stop it. Now they don't want anything done with bonuses? How do these people get elected? Don't complain about something and then not do anything about it. You can put the blame on the White House or the Treasury all you want, but they along with other people in Congress are trying to do something about it. For now on they should STFU if they aren't going to take action, but I'm sure that will be hard for them to do.

How do these people get elected?

The people who vote for them are more interested in hating us than in having coherent legislators.

"And just for real fun, Grover Norquist told the 172 representatives and 35 senators who signed an anti-tax pledge that if they support getting back the AIG bonuses, they'll be violating their written promise to the conservative movement."

The conservative movement has a loyalty oath?

And of course there's nothing inconsistent about members of the party that voted to dismantle every last thing that stood in the way of people making a crapload of money in an unregulated market now being outraged that people made a crapload of money in an unregulated market.

Well, so much for "Split Emerging Between Conservative Media And GOP Leadership On AIG Mess."

That sound you hear is the GOP congressional leadership asking Rush, "How high?"

"The conservative movement has a loyalty oath?" Posted by: 2Manchu

I see I'm not the only one bothered by that.

"grandstanding"

The bonuses are 1/1,000 of money given to AIG so far. It's pretty much grandstanding, no matter who does it.

When Obama demagogues the AIG bonuses and executives, it's not grandstanding? Is this solely because he "plans" to do something about it?

What if the thing one proposes to address the issue is almost certainly going to run afoul of the law, and you know this - is it still effective governance, and not grandstanding?

What if one hundred equivalent outrages occur each week, but you act on this one because it is in the news, and your solution doesn't address the other 99 cases? Is that just symbolism, grandstanding?

What if the compensation were straight pay, rather than bonuses, would that make everyone feel better?

Are we complaining that someone, somewhere is overpaid? Or does it matter solely because the company has received government money? Then what about sports teams getting stadiums built, airline bailouts, Boeing, GM, Ford, Chrysler?

Overpaid execs are similar to cadillac-driving food stamps recipients - they are irrelevant in the grand scale of "justice", and focusing on them often tells you more about the demagogue than the target.

Overpaid execs are similar to cadillac-driving food stamps recipients

Well, sure, except that the former category actually has confirmable members. Lots of them, as it turns out.

Look, nowhere in your homily do you happen to acknowledge that what's got us all het up is people being rewarded handsomely with our cash for massive incompetence that's had catastrophic results for all of us. That isn't comparable to thinking that ball players make too much money, for crying out loud, and as it happens, quite a few people (I'm not among them) have been expressing a great deal of anger about automaker and airline bailouts. (Where ya been?)

You're underestimating the symbolic power of these bonuses as a focusing point for fully justifiable public anger about financial misdeeds that are having enormous economic consequences for all of us. We can reasonably debate whether the various proposed remedies are legal, well advised or likely to help. But to dismiss this as a non-issue and ignore the actual financial hardship this situation has imposed on millions shows you're as far into not-getting-it land as the malfeasants in these cases have shown themselves to be.

I for one hope this really is a Xanatos Gambit.

It has a NAME? Thanks Mr. Gilroy. I was thinking that Johnny Von Neumann would be proud of the game theory at work here, but this just solidifies it for me.

Please, my paranoid little mind didn't come up with this on its own. I was listening to Rachael Maddow's show, and in passing she mentioned (in passing) something to the effect that, "now that this outrage has happened, it'll be easier to re-regulate the financial industry; you'd think they wanted this to happen."

That's when it hit me -- the whole outrage keeps the GOP off balance, AND makes all of Wall Street's lobbyists radioactive. Decent conditions to "reform" Wall Street so it benefits Main Street.

It ain't paranoid if they really are that smart!

No surprise here. Many Americans and all Republicans associate wealth with virtue. This is a religious, i.e. faith based belief impervious to contrary evidence or logic. So Republicans never support any policies that might reduce any rich persons personal wealth.