Sen. Jon Kyl pushes back against “outrage” over AIG bonuses

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In the past two days few public figures have defended AIG per se, but "Senator Obstruction," Jon Kyl, is pushing back against what he deems to be overstated outrage. Santelli, Sen. Kyl Push Back Against "Outrage" Over AIG Bonuses

On Monday, Sen. Jon Kyl ridiculed politicians for being quick to "demagogue" the AIG issue. And while rapping AIG for soaking up taxpayer funds before issuing bonuses, he warned — during an appearance on Fred Thompson's radio show — that pols like him would "just ride the horse and beat it into the ground."

"The first thing to think about is, whenever politicians start railing about other peoples' behavior — particularly in the private market — put your hand on your wallet and start asking questions, you know," he said. "Because, politicians love to criticize others for what they do, and this is an easy issue to demagogue. Particularly because nobody can be happy about the way some of these companies conducted their affairs, AIG among them."

"If the contracts are stupid contracts, if they committed them to do things that weren't right, or went way overboard, because taxpayers have put a bunch of money behind AIG, certainly we have the right to be asking those kinds of questions. But I would hope that we would do it not in a demagogic or hypocritical way, but simply say, 'look, now that the government is helping you out, you can't do that kind of stuff again. So either undo what you did, if you can if it's the right thing to do, or don't do it again in the future.' But you know that isn't how the politicians will deal with it. They'll just ride the horse and beat it into the ground."

Maybe Sen. Kyl should speak to his good friend Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa) about that demagogue thing. Grassley: AIG Execs Should Quit Or Commit Suicide Grassley's comments came during an interview Monday with Cedar Rapids radio station WMT.

"I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed," Grassley said Monday. "But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say 'I'm sorry,' and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.

"And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology."

Nice. Grassley backtracked Tuesday morning in a conference call with reporters. He said he would like executives of failed businesses to make a more formal public apology, as business leaders have done in Japan.

"What I'm expressing here obviously is not that I want people to commit suicide. That's not my notion," Grassley said Tuesday. "But I do feel very strongly that we have not had statements of apology, statements of remorse, statements of contrition on the part of CEOs of manufacturing companies or banks or financial services or insurance companies that are asking for bailouts."

CNBC analyst and right wing "populist" hero, Rick Santelli, apparently not satisifed with his 15 minutes of fame for calling homeowners who are under water on their mortgages or in foreclosure "losers," defended his millionaire trader friends at AIG for receiving bonuses. Santelli, Sen. Kyl Push Back Against "Outrage" Over AIG Bonuses

On Tuesday morning, it was Rick Santelli's turn to downplay the outrage. The CNBC host of 'rewarding-the-housing-market-losers' fame, urged the masses to show some perspective. After all, this was mere "millions" of dollars engendering the bonus-driven anger, as opposed to the "billions" that AIG has received in bailout bucks. From CNBC's Squawk Box:

SANTELLI: Now, think about it this way. Maybe I'm missing something. But the outrage seems to be about M's, millions of dollars, right? $165 million, OK?

But I would think that it should be looked at as a pretty big positive, because when you go from the M, maybe you should try to go to the B's, which is the billions of dollars, and maybe that's going to even enlighten it for the T, trillions of dollars. You know, $165 million is like worrying about 16.5 cents, while $165 maybe necessitates a little more outrage.