Buried among the overwhelming avalanche of self righteousness and dripping hypocrisy with regard to the AIG bonus ruckus are several calm, well thought out defenses of the bonuses and the sanctity of contracts.Glenn Beck has come out in favor of paying the AIG employees what is contractually owed them as have a few others like Anderw Sorkin in the New York Times and Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post. Marcus, a liberal, decries the atmosphere of anger that the government has ginned up against AIG employees and makes some good points on why these "retention bonuses" should be paid:Well, because in the short run, hammering the AIG employees to give back their bonuses risks costing the government more than honoring the contracts would. The worst malefactors at AIG are gone. The new top management isn't taking bonuses. Those in the bonus pool are making sums that for most of us would be astronomical but that are significantly less than what they used to make. Driving away...(Read Full Post)