Do We Believe in the Rule of Law in the US?

The pat answer is "yes, of course." Perhaps followed by, "What a stupid question."

Read the following AP article and then see if you still think it is a stupid question.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090317/ap_on_go_co/aig_outrage

Here are a couple of telling quotes:

"Recipients of these bonuses will not be able to keep all of their money," declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in an unusually strong threat delivered on the Senate floor.

"If you don't return it on your own, we will do it for you," said Chuck Schumer of New York.

I am not saying the AIG bonuses were proper. But they were clearly legal and if AIG had not paid them they would've been sued by the people that "earned" them under the terms of their contracts with the company.

Are we going to anull any or all contracts that outrage the public or the political class? If so, then in the words of one of my colleagues over lunch, "In what meaningful way does our political system differ from that of any tin-horn dictatorship?"

Rather than spending political capital exacting revenge, perhaps our exhalted leaders could concentrate more on passing appropriate policies so these types of things don't happen in the future. Had the federal government not bailed out AIG in the first place, no one would no be complaining about $170 million dollars in bonuses being paid out of taxpayer money.