There's no end of public fulminating about the way financial industry fat cats take care of themselves with big bonuses and other perks even as consumers and average taxpayers take it on the chin.

The anger in Congress over the bonuses paid to some executives of the insurance giant AIG is palpable. It's a red-hot issue that politicians simply cannot leave alone.

In Honolulu, Gov. Linda Lingle joined in the national angst with a vigorous statement about bonuses proposed for executives and others at Hawaiian Telcom, which is entering bankruptcy. "The decision today by Hawaiian Telcom to ask the bankruptcy court to approve $6 million in bonuses for its employees is unconscionable, and we will oppose it in court," Lingle declared.

Forget for the moment that there are critical differences. AIG is stumbling along on the basis of huge infusions of cash from the taxpayers. Hawaiian Telcom has yet to ask for direct taxpayer assistance.

No matter that bonuses for performance or retention are standard in the industry. When people are suffering, they want to take out their anger on someone. Why not focus on executives who are raking in far more than most people could ever imagine?

On this issue, credit Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Inouye for a rare bit of calm and restraint. Inouye is warning that the understandable urge for retaliation against fat bonuses paid to AIG executives may backfire.

In a recent speech in Miami, Inouye noted that the plan to tax bonuses paid to executives at AIG and elsewhere at confiscatory rates may be unconstitutional. He makes a good point.

Yes, we are mad at the way AIG handled its business. But if we retaliate by taxing its executives at excessive rates, what comes next? This is special-interest legislation at its worst.

Should newspapers be taxed at such rates if they write editorials that anger members of Congress or the public? Should special tax rates be created for over-paid and self-indulgent entertainers or sports heroes?

Inouye's point is that there may be a need for some kind of legislation to hold back unwarranted and unproductive bonuses. But passing very targeted special-interest legislation on the basis of today's flash point of anger makes little sense and would set a terrible precedent.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays in this space. See his blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/akamaipolitics. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.