The bible of business, The Wall Street Journal, is reporting this week that major financial institutions have continued to spend big dollars to lobby lawmakers, just as these banks draw down from the $700 billion bank rescue/bailout fund.  American International Group (AIG), once the nation’s largest insurer, is a major lobbyist and campaign donor. It spent $6.7 million lobbying Congress in the first half of the year after spending $11.4 million on lobbying in 2007, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This year’s third quarter numbers are due today.  AIG are the guys the government first had to loan $85 billion to stay afloat. That wasn’t enough and the feds sent AIG another $35 billion to keep the doors open. As that happened, AIG spent $440,000 for a weekend for the execs at a fancy California spa. AIG has now agreed to stop lobbying after drawing complaints from several senators.  That may not stop its brothers in arms however. The Journal reports that Merrill Lynch spent at least $1.5 million lobbying the federal government in the third quarter, a rise from $1.2 million in the second quarter. Merrill ran into problems in the credit crunch and Bank of America will buy the venerable investment bank. As its part of the $700 billion rescue, Bank of America is scheduled to receive $25 billion from the U.S. Treasury in return for preferred stock.  Morgan Stanley spent $730,000 on lobbying in the first quarter, $810,000 in the second quarter, and $765,000 in the third quarter, for a total of $2.3 million. Morgan is scheduled to receive $10 billion from the Treasury for its preferred stock.  Wells Fargo spent $1.3 million on lobbying this year and is supposed to receive somewhere between $20 billion to $25 billion. Wells Fargo is the bank that will end up buying most of Wachovia, another huge floundering bank.  Folks that hire lobbyists often say they do it so their voice is heard in the halls of Congress.