But, when it comes to paddling against the populist wave aimed at greedy bankers, President Obama and Senate Republican leaders are in the same little boat.
Just as Obama has given a cool reception to proposals to tax the AIG bonuses back into the federal coffers on two national TV appearances in the past four days, it's Senate Republicans who put the Senate version of that proposal on ice for the moment.
One of the reasons they're giving - along with cautioning against passing laws directed punitively at one group of people - is the same one being given on the sly by the administration: a bonus tax could ultimately hurt the TARP program and Geithner's public-private toxic asset investment scheme.
On the Senate floor this morning, the number two Republican in the Senate, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, who voted for the TARP program last year, said he would hold up the AIG law for that very reason.
"We're going to destroy that program if the participants in that program believe that congress is going to come down and act out of spite," he said, asking his colleagues to all "take a deep breath here."
In his speech, Kyl quoted Obama's '60 Minutes' interview, saying laws should have "broad applicability" and questioning whether the AIG law does.
"What I'd like to do is to make sure that in expressing our outrage -- and every one of us are outraged about this, Kyl said, "that we do it in a way that's constructive and want destructive to the very program that the president has created to try to help these struggling companies get back on their feet so that they can lend credit to everybody else who needs credit in our country." - ABC News
And Obama and Democrats say they are the "JUST SAY NO" Party.
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