MORE BAILOUT QUESTIONS: “The spectacle of Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson running roughshod over Kenneth Lewis and his minions at Bank of America Corp. raises a pivotal question for all Americans: Is the U.S. a nation of laws, or a nation of banks? . . . It didn’t matter that investors were buying and selling billions of the banks’ shares without a clue that Merrill had lost more than $12 billion during the fourth quarter. Bernanke and Paulson had a singular objective — to get the Merrill deal done, on time — even if that meant duping the stock market and threatening to fire Lewis as chief executive officer, along with the company’s board.”