According to Fox News Washington Mutual’s new CEO will be paid $20 million for his 17 days on the job before his company collapsed. MSNBC.COM lays out a scenario where taxpayers could pay billions.

U.S. taxpayers, meantime, could end up shouldering billions of dollars worth of shaky mortgages and other investments that contributed to WaMu’s demise. Such a scenario assumes the massive bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, or something like it, will be approved and JPMorgan will sell WaMu’s least desirable assets to the government.

I’m sure they had to give him that contract. You have to pay top dollar for the best talent. Granted he wasn’t in charge for WaMu’s fall but you’d think his bonuses and pay would have been linked to the company actually surviving.