Industrial Policy: Democrat-controlled Washington refuses to let go of the executive bonus issue but is downright eager to let go of executives. Has tyranny become a governing principle?

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich has made himself busy probing the $3.6 billion in bonuses Merrill Lynch paid after the government funneled the crumbling company bailout money to complete its sale to Bank of America.

The Ohio congressman, who is chairman of the domestic policy subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel, wants to know what Treasury and Federal Reserve officials knew about the bonuses.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner threatened to fire more CEOs if they don't obey the administration's demands. Apparently this week's White House sacking of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner is not enough to satisfy the administration's urge to punish the private sector.

The bonuses that Kucinich is so interested in are 22 times as big as the $165 million AIG bonuses that set off the recent round of populist outrage. In a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Kucinich says the bonuses "raise significant questions about what information Merrill Lynch and Bank of America executives shared with federal officials that oversaw the Merrill acquisition by Bank of America."

Kucinich has also asked Bernanke and Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to produce documents related to the bonuses.

Anyone who wonders what Kucinich is looking for need only to think back to the AIG bonus squabble and before that, the New England witch hunts.

Recall that Democratic Rep. Barney Frank demanded a list of the executives who were awarded retention bonuses, grousing that they are not "the people you want to retain."

And that New York Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, in step with these Democratic times, has threatened to reveal publicly the names of bonus recipients.

Rather than trying to reform an institution or move the republic forward, Kucinich, Frank, Cuomo and a long list of others simply want to use their offices to punish people they don't like.

They will harass them with subpoenas, grill them at hearings, strip them of their bonuses and incite public anger toward them.

And if those tactics don't work, they will fire them.

Maybe it's too late for Wagoner, but we would like to see the next executive the administration fires refuse to leave and sue federal officials for interfering with his business.

Bailing out a company with taxpayers' money does not give the government the authority to, in effect, seize the business. That might happen in the Third World, but it shouldn't happen here.

In excusing the creeping federal takeover, Geithner said the government has had to do "exceptional things." What it's doing has gone beyond exceptional and entered into the outer sphere of tyranny and possible illegality.

It needs to be stopped before it goes any deeper -- or causes further serious damage to our capitalist system.