Am I the only one who thinks that it's wildly inappropriate for Barack Obama to be maneuvering his supporters into key positions at banks that are accepting federal bailout funds?

Citigroup Inc. (C) (C)'s new board chairman, Richard Parsons, said financial institutions are being targeted for creating the nation's financial crisis, but they aren't the only ones responsible.

...Parsons' job now is to help turn around the troubled banking giant, as he did as CEO of Time Warner Inc. (TWX) Citigroup has suffered five straight quarters of losses, including $8.29 billion in the fourth quarter alone.

It has received $45 billion in bailout aid, and the government also agreed to cover a portion of losses on hundreds of billions of troubled assets and loans as Citi looks to right itself.

Parsons said as a board member since the mid-1990s, he shares some of the responsibility "for where we find ourselves."

...Parsons, who served as an economic adviser on Obama's transition team, attended the University of Hawaii a couple years after Obama's parents. Parsons never met Obama or his parents while at Hawaii.

So, let's see: Citigroup gets $45 billion of our money and "coincidentally," the brand spanking new head of the board turns out to be one of Obama's political allies.

Gee, how might that affect future bailout money going to Citigroup or more importantly from Obama's perspective, money flowing into Democratic coffers from Citigroup?

Barack Obama should not be able to use taxpayer funds to manipulate the banking industry for his own political needs. Republicans should demand that Richard Parsons be dumped from the board of Citigroup and an investigation should be undertaken to find out whether the Obama Administration was involved.

The GOP in D.C. needs to stop sitting on its hands while Obama is cementing in his control of these banks for the long haul. The conservative media can make a stink, but at some point, the Republican Ken Dolls in D.C. need to start growing a pair and nailing Obama hard on this sort of corruption.