Liddy On The Hot Seat

To paraphraseRicky Ricardo’srepeated warning tohis wacky but lovable spouse in “I Love Lucy,” AIG CEO Ed Liddy will have “a lot of ‘esplaining’ to do” when he is dragged before Congress once again on May 13, not only about his company’s continuing struggles, but about his own perks.

In case you missed our recent news coverage, Mr. Liddy has agreed (supposedly under the threat of a subpoena) to be grilled before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, after postponing his scheduled May 6 appearance because AIG’s first-quarter earnings report (revealing a net loss of $4.35 billion) was due the next day.

As reported by Washington Editor Dave Postal, Mr. Liddy will be called upon to say whether the poster child of the bailout generation will require any more government funds to stay afloat. He will also be asked once again to lay outexactly how AIG got itself into this mess, what thecompany has done withthe tens of billions inpublic moneyit’s received, as well as to speculate on whether Washingtonwas in fact AIG’s only hope–both when the problems emerged last fall and now.