Since taking over beleaguered insurer AIG a week ago, Robert Benmosche has quickly become one of my favorite CEOs.

He apparently couldn't care less that AIG owes the U.S. government more than $80 billion. That's the Treasury and Fed's fault, not AIG's, it seems.

"I'm appalled at how much pressure has been put on all of you to just sell it no matter what, because the Fed wants out, or the Treasury wants out," Benmosche told a town hall meeting of AIG employees earlier this month, according to a recording obtained by Bloomberg. "If they want out in a hurry, they shouldn't have come in in the first place."

If AIG wanted a leader with chutzpah, it sure got one.

But not only that, it got a father figure. In what felt like a scene right out of ‘Good Will Hunting,' Benmosche told the employees, "It's time the people in Congress stopped talking about you as the problem, because you're the solution. It's not your fault, it's their fault, it's the regulators' fault."

At the same time, he's sensitive to the U.S. taxpayers' needs. In an interview with Bloomberg today, Benmosche said he expects AIG to repay the government, which, I think, is pretty generous all things considered.

"At the end of the day, we believe we will be able to pay back the government and we hope we will be able to do something for our shareholders as well," Benmosche said. "The government is working with us. They want us to do things that are very prudent."

I'm glad the government sees it his way. I wouldn't want him to have to do anything rash.