While the big banks (those that can) scramble to get out from under the government's TARP, the Hartford insurance conglomerate is trying to insure its survival by snuggling under the taxpayer-funded security blanket.

Several big insurers (aside from previously bailed-out AIG) got the OK last month to snarf up money under the TARP. Hartford has finally announced that it wants to tap the taxpayers for $3.4 billion.

Leave aside the strange notion that an insurance company needs to plead for billions in insurance not from a re-insurer but from the government.

Hartford and five other insurers (including the good-hands people at Allstate) had been granted access to a total of $22 billion in TARP funds.

It's one sweet racket for the insurance industry. When the insurers first got the word, their stocks soared. For more background, see this and this.