As if Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner didn't have enough to worry about. Now Senator John Kerry wants to make him national arbiter of the corporate golf junket. This week Mr. Kerry is angry at Northern Trust -- a bank that accepted $1.6 billion in TARP funds last year despite being well-capitalized and profitable. Northern Trust last week sponsored, for the second time, the Northern Trust Open, a PGA Tour event. As part of its sponsorship, it wined and dined clients and employees at swanky Los Angeles locales -- all paid for, to hear Mr. Kerry tell it, with TARP money.

Senator Kerry's solution to this "idiotic" decision is to outlaw fun. "Kerry's TARP Taxpayer Protection and Corporate Responsibility Act," the Senator's press release announced, "would prevent any recipient of TARP funds from hosting, sponsoring, or paying for conferences, holiday parties and entertainment events." Penalties would include fines and forced reimbursement of TARP funds. A bank could still throw a party for customers, provided it gets a "waiver" from the Treasury Secretary, who has 30 days to issue his golf and chardonnay diktat.

We'd be the first to agree that taxpayer money should be spent wisely. But Northern Trust makes money. It could probably pay back the TARP funds tomorrow if the terms of that investment didn't make it onerous to do so before three years have elapsed.

A Treasury Secretary has better things to do than to police every conference, holiday party and entertainment event. If there's a silver lining in this inane proposal, it's that it reinforces the need to let well-run banks get out from under the TARP as soon as they are able. On the other hand, perhaps Mr. Kerry will soon be proposing a bailout for all the events that are going to lose their corporate sponsors, along with the businesses that cater to them.