Nice to wake up to a contrarian take on the most explosive issue of the day. This morning, the Washington Post editorial board expressed support for the $165 million in bonuses for the people who were pivotal in bringing down insurance giant-turned-government—appendage AIG. Here’s the reasoning:

For better or worse, the U.S. government — i.e., all of us — now owns AIG. The firm is hemorrhaging knowledgeable employees at precisely the time when it — and therefore we — need them most. No matter how morally satisfying, taking back bonuses now, as proposed yesterday in belated outrage by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), would probably accelerate the exodus, with the likely effect that the country would lose much more money on AIG than it would otherwise.

The Post is proving unaware of one of the most central points of executive management: No one is irreplacable, except for Lawrence Taylor.