The debate over what the White House and Congress should do about AIG's bonuses has turned...anatomical.
Appearing on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday to debate a provision that would essentially tax away the bonuses received by executives at bailed-out institutions, Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-OH, tried to explain the "sucking sound" they were now hearing, and it involved the phrase "tightening of sphincters."
"Ross Perot when he ran for president in 1992 talked about the giant sucking sound. Well, today, there's another giant sucking sound going on in Washington D.C. And that's tightening of sphincters on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as people are having to explain who put into the stimulus bill this provision of law."
Not content to let the image die, NBC's congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira declared that "the posterior regions of the human anatomy are on the minds of Republicans today," because Minority Leader John Boehner had described the bill as a way for "Democrats to cover their butt." Before explaining what the new tax provisions would entail he noted that everybody was "clenched up" in the halls of Congress.
Make it stop.