By RICHARD ESPOSITO and JOANNA JENNINGSFeb. 27, 2009
In just one day, the president of Bank of America, Ken Lewis, managed to defy both President Barack Obama and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
On Thursday, Lewis refused to provide a list of bonus payments to the New York Attorney General, after arriving in New York in his $50 million corporate jet. Earlier this week, President Obama said the days of bank executives flying corporate jets "were over." Not for Bank of America.
Peacenik isn't going to feign outrage or anger. The Bank of America is insolvent. Bankrupt. Zombified. The BofA has accepted billions of taxpayer dollars so that it can pretend to be an ongoing concern. If anyone could figure out how to deal with the fallout from a bankrupt BofA, the lights would be out already.
Peacenik has to go back and read about the behaviour of the rich during the Russian revolution or the French revolution. Could they possibly have been as out of touch with reality as Ken Lewis is today? He doesn't get it. The public, with pitchforks, will be storming the BofA and Ken Lewis will be on the phone to the caterers complaining that the soup was cold. No, Peacenik isn't angry at Ken Lewis. Peacenik thinks this is all part of an inevitable conflagration. And everyone is playing their role to perfection.
