Obama: Now The AIG Bonuses Are OK?

After spending all of last week trashing AIG for having the nerve to honor contracts to their employees by paying what these people earned, suddenly, President Obama has had a change of heart:

Obama is virtually certain to use Tuesday's prime-time news conference to continue an effort that began over the weekend: cooling the anti-AIG ferocity, now that it threatens to undermine his efforts to bail out the nation's deeply troubled financial sector.

So, when the AIG bonuses politically worked for Obama, he was choked up with anger over it. But, now that he needs the help of AIG's peer companies, it's let's not get crazy here.

Executives of other troubled companies signaled they would not make deals with a federal government that revises agreements after they are signed.

Wasn't it Obama who chastised AIG just last week by demanding that the government "use (their) leverage to pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayer whole."

“Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at A.I.G. warranted any bonuses at all, much less $165 million in extra pay,” Mr. Obama said. “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”

Congress took up the torch, attempting the legally-dubious 90% tax on the bonuses.

Many lawmakers felt Obama had encouraged their step, because he called the bonuses reckless, outrageous and unjustified.

One wonders where Congress got that idea:

After the House vote last week, the administration said the action "rightly reflects the outrage that so many feel over the lavish bonuses" to AIG executives.

Countless protesters took to the streets last week, organizing outside the homes of AIG executives, with some issuing death threats. Obama, it seems, did little if anything to quell this fury.

But now, Obama chastises Congress by stating that he would not govern out of anger.

Not surprisingly, the editors at the Boston Globe quickly agreed with Obama this morning:

...while the people's anger at the bonuses may be genuine, lawmaker anger seems more contrived.

Gee. Interesting it took so long for them to come around to what many of us knew already.

This was the same newspaper that editorialized, JUST LAST WEEK:

The public was already furious, and AIG's conduct only fuels more resentment. So far, the Obama administration has been gentle with Wall Street. Wall Street has not returned the favor. Time to take a harder line.

Last week the Obama administration was ready to do just that. Today? Not so much:

(Obama urged) a more tempered response to public furor over bonuses paid to executives of the publicly rescued insurance giant American International Group.

In an essay published in newspapers around the world, Obama claims that "My message is clear..."

Obviously not on this issue....