The recent crumbling of Washington Mutual has been noted to be the biggest bank failure in U.S. history -- wooh! We're No.1!

At first, news of this failure played out as just another bank, just another financial institution down in flames. In recent weeks, numbers like $700 billion for a Wall Street rescue package and $9.5 trillion in national debt have been bandied about so much that several million dollars somehow seems like not that much money anymore. But now we know there are fat severance packages in the works for the top-dog WaMu executives. I'm certain this news isn't sitting too well with the WaMu employees whose 401(k)s were pillaged because of their heavy investment in WaMu stock, now worth about 10 cents. Oh, and all the folks who have lost their jobs will be none too happy.

The longstanding CEO of WaMu, Kerry Killinger, was forced out of his position in favor of Larry Fishman. Everyone knows the pain of being ousted.

For a two-month period in sixth grade, our class participated in a square dancing program every Wednesday afternoon. I was partnered up with Craig Hollings, a cute dude who with some extra coaching, turned out to be a very good square dancer. Every week with increasing anticipation I would look forward to those Wednesdays when Craig and I would do-si-do and see-saw. He would allemande-left with the corner gal, then we would circle eight and we were not late for the Wabash Cannonball.

For weeks we were partnered together, and by the end of the first month, we were the envy of the other pairs of dancers because of our flair and expert execution of the dance steps.

With only four weeks of square dancing remaining, I woke up one Wednesday morning with strep throat and missed my much beloved square dancing day. The next Wednesday I found that in my absence, Craig had partnered up with Patsy Akers and looked quite happy in doing so. I (like Kerry Killinger) had been ousted from my position as CEO of Craig Hollings. Partnerless and vulnerable Craig (like WaMu) had been seized by Patsy "JPMorgan" Akers who enjoyed the spoils of all my hard work. When Patsy gave me a little smirk, I fought the urge to kick her assets and instead concentrated on not letting the hot tears of anger cascade down my face.

To take the sting out of being replaced, Killinger may enjoy a severance package that totals more than $22 million. Stephen Rotella, president/chief operating officer, and CFO Thomas Casey are also in line to receive millions. Larry Fishman, CEO of Washington Mutual for 18 days, negotiated an $11 million severance package.

What the (beep)? How the (double-beep)?

Well, it has been reported that Fishman, even if found legally entitled, will not accept this hefty cash severance. But there is the issue of the $7.5 million signing bonus that Fishman "earned" when he came aboard the sinking USS WaMu.

This signing bonus is almost as much as the bonus that Alex Rodriguez received when he inked his infamous $275 million deal with the New York Yankees and Fishman isn't nearly as babelicious as A-Rod, what with his sea-foam green eyes, skin the color of a McDonald's cheeseburger bun and biceps the size of an infant's head.

How can those vast amounts of cash be funneled guilt-free to all those people while we, the lowly taxpayers, are expected to fund the fix?

At businessweek.com, a reader commented on WaMu's 1998 takeover of her place of employment, Home Savings of America: "They were going to cut my pay $1,000 a month and told me how I could make up my difference in pay by not giving in to customers on service charges or fees and I would be rewarded by a monthly bonus. Unethical, huh? I knew this day would come. It just took a little longer than I thought."

Yes, it did take a while for this day of reckoning for WaMu execs, but now it's here.

There must be some extra accountability for the actions of those businessmen. I want them to wear monitoring ankle bracelets, register as financial offenders and not be allowed within 500 feet of any financial institution.

Cathy Sorbo is a Seattle comic who performs regularly at the Comedy Underground and writes columns for the Seattle P-I Her Web site is www.cathysorbo.com