Did We Pay For The Hookers, Too?

From the Wall Street Journal:

     Last week, as Wall Street crumbled, about 70 executives of American International Group rewarded themselves with a week at the St. Regis in Monarch Beach, Calif. — and the $440,000 tab was a topic at (last night's) presidential debate.

     The AIG group ran up a bill that included $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa, according to a Washington Post report.

     At (Tuesday night's) presidential debate, Barack Obama said they should be fired and the cost of the trip should be reimbursed to the U.S. Treasury since the taxpayers are on the hook for the $85 billion bailout to save the ailing insurance giant.

     “The Treasury should demand that money back and those executives should be fired,” Obama said, in remarks about how to improve the overall economy, which includes greater oversight and regulation of executive pay.

     In a related story, John McCain wanted to waive reimbursement of the $2,949.00 "gratuities" line-item (an "earmark", my friends), while a clueless-as-usual Sarah Palin wondered aloud if "gratuities" was, in fact, a Muslim codeword linking Barack Obama to domestic terror.