The other scandal exposed by the AIG soap opera is the fact that the only thing left in the GOP playbook is distraction.

Why did this happen? Systematic deregulation of the financial industry on the part of the Bush administration, coupled with the lack of funds to allow the existing regulators to perform their duties. Period. End of conversation.

AIG did Bush's dirty work, spreading his deregulation vision to Europe to disrupt their stringent regulations of having capital on hand. AIG's "product" was nothing more than regulation circumvention insurance, sold to European banks. Now the US tax payer is bailing out those banks through AIG, and in effect rewarding foreign countries' deregulation *and* risk taking? W.T.F.?

AIG (*not* Fannie or Freddie) used this to perform the real estate equivalent of money lanudering subprime and other bad loans. How that isn't a crime in and of itself is beyond me.

I just hope the responsible parties are dealt with, not dealt bonuses.