Capping Executive Pay on Wall Street: McCain Takes the Lead?

The idea of capping executive pay on Wall Street is really catching on. You would think the strongest measure on that front would be found in the version of the bailout proposed by Democrat Chris Dodd. Actually, it's coming from... John McCain?

Dodd is proposing to penalize executives who take "inappropriate or excessive" risks. The executive compensation and severance packages could be reduced if that is "in the public interest," the proposal says. It would also force executives to give back profits they earned that were based on company accounting measures that are later found to be inaccurate.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has supported giving shareholders a bigger say in executive compensation in the past, said today that taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill for "golden parachutes" for officers of companies that have crumbled in upheaval on Wall Street.

"The senior executives of any firm that is bailed out by Treasury should not be making more than the highest paid government official," McCain said at a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The president is the highest paid federal official, with a salary of $400,000 a year.

McCain is really, really committed to this new populist, foe-of-Wall Street posture. And, for what it's worth, take a second to reflect on how quickly and how fundamentally the economic meltdown has changed the political landscape in this country — the two parties are competing to see who can twist the screws tighter on Wall Street fat cats. Did you think even six months ago that such a scenario was possible in this country?