AARON ZELINSKY: Larry Summers claims that nothing can be done about the AIG bonuses. As a former Secretary of the Treasury, he should know better. (Via TaxProf).

UPDATE: I’m guessing that most of the people getting these bailouts voted for Obama, who had a lot of support from the Wall Street crowd. AIG donations went 68% to Democrats in 2008. That may explain things . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Or maybe not: Obama will try to block executive bonuses at AIG. Maybe they just didn’t give enough?

MORE: So is the above unfair to Obama? Yeah, maybe. But he took a lot of money from the Wall Street crowd, and he’s given a lot of money to the Wall Street crowd, and he’s spent a lot of time condemning the Wall Street crowd, so practically anything he does is going to look inconsistent.

STILL MORE: Jane Hamsher: Who put all these Wall Streeters in charge? And why are they giving all our money to Wall Street?

DARREN HUTCHINSON: Fundamentals of the Economy Are Sound — Really? “Even Huffington Post, which beat up McCain for saying the fundamentals of the economy were sound last September, has published an article showing the striking similarities between Romer’s and McCain’s statements. Since the time McCain made his comments, the stock market has plunged, unemployment has soared, foreclosures have climbed to record highs, and GDP is in free fall. But now, the fundamentals of the economy are sound when they were not last Fall. Amazing stuff.” Amazing. And amusing! But hey, if the economy is still fundamentally sound, I guess Obama’s claims of inheriting the problems don’t hold water . . .

HMM: Refer Barney Frank to House Ethics Committee.

As you may recall, while the Massachusetts Democrat served on the House Banking Committee in the 1990s (now the House Financial Services Committee which he chairs), he was living with Herb Moses, then an executive at Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) regulated by his committee. Since a heterosexual Congressman would have stepped down from a committee if it regulated the industry where his wife worked, a gay Congressman should step down in similar circumstances.

Frank led Democratic efforts to thwart reforms of Fannie and its sister GSE, Freddie Mac.

So, learning of Frank’s outrage over AIG, I decided to do something I had intended to do when the Democrat’s conflict of interest came to light, write to my Congressman, Henry Waxman, asking to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.

We’ll see how that works out . . . .

ABC NEWS: Dramatic Advances Sweep Iraq, Boosting Support for Democracy.

UPDATE: Reader John Steakley emails:

If this is a “lost” war, what does a won war look like?

Paging Senator Reid . . . Senator Reid to the podium . . .

Don’t hold your breath.

BARNEY FRANK COMES OUT AGAINST “rewarding incompetence.”

UPDATE: “Does this mean he’s resigning?”

HMM: ARM Leader Harvey Vengroff’s Tax Protest Creating Jobs in Florida.

LAST WEEK I CRITICIZED OBAMA FOR OPPOSING CLONING, but apparently I was misled on his position. Well, good for him if he’s more open than I thought; however, it appears that he’s still opposed to reproductive cloning. If that’s so, my original objections apply.

MURTHA UPDATE: PMA Group: A Look Inside The Earmark Game.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND if you were out, you know, having a life:

A massive Cincinnati “tea party” protest. (Check out the aerial view of the crowd, below.)

More protests in Columbus, Ohio, Little Rock (more here), Kansas City, and Boise.

Still more on Chris Dodd’s Irish “cottage.” (More here, from the Hartford Courant, and from WTNH.).

The continuing relevance of Ayn Rand.

David Broder on growing Obama criticism. Plus, among Democrats, Worries grow that Barack Obama & Co. have a competence problem.

Chinese worries about the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds. (President Obama says relax, don’t worry.)

The amazing origin of Play-Doh.

The return of Gordon Gekko.

Passport security — still unimpressive.

And Tom Maguire does my job for me.

Finally: The “Boobie Bungalow.” Because everybody likes boobies!

OH, GOODY: Summers Says Economy Hasn’t Hit Bottom, Job Losses May Continue.

RESTORING THEIR VOICES: “Three months ago, Jordan could not speak. Today, he took time to thank Hewlett-Packard Co., in perfect English.”

SIMMONS TO RUN AGAINST CHRIS DODD: “Former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons plans to run against Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd. . . . Dodd’s fifth term ends next year, and he plans to run for a sixth. He’s currently under investigation by a Senate ethics panel for mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial Corp. when he refinanced his Washington and East Haddam, Conn., homes in 2003.”

MCCLATCHY: Greatest Threat to Obama Spending Plan? Moderate Dems.

UPDATE: Related item: “Here’s a fun game. Swap ‘Congress’ and ‘corporations’ in that last sentence. Ha ha, just kidding.” Plus, what else the New York Times is missing when it comes to populist backlash.

MICHAEL YON: Water Torture.

PHOTOS: Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible, Decline.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Pakistan implodes.

YOU’VE BEEN PUNKED.

PARENTING the strong-willed child.