Jim Berlin from Dude With Tude wrote a short piece on the auto bailout. Jim is a satirist, but this one article was serious.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid claim they were incensed when CEOs of Ford, GM and Chrysler came to Washington in their corporate jets, then proceeded to plead for another $25 billion in bailout money.
The anger was phony, a red herring, a play-to-the-public that Democrats have suddenly become disengaged from the inherent liberal notion that unions must be served and money fixes everything. The decision to delay a bailout and order the men to return with a plan had nothing to do with corporate jets or outrageous CEO salaries.
The auto chiefs could have traveled to D.C. on mule and horseback — hell, they could have hitchhiked and offered to work for a dollar a year — and the outcome would have been the same. Not because Dems are suddenly tightfisted, but because Nancy and Harry realized majority public opinion was against a quick handout.
The car-makers will get their money, tons of it, but first The Great Charade must be played out. And it will work like this:
In December the Detroit big shots will be back before Congress. They will arrive on commercial flights. They will have seen Fiscal Jesus.
Detroit’s Big Three, which have sailed a rock-steady course into disaster for the last 50 years, will claim to have undergone a foundational change in philosophy in only two weeks. They will speak of slicing benefits and salaries, an end to gas guzzlers, stringent quality control, alternative fuels, maybe even cars that don’t rust after three years of winter.
They will be promises scribbled in crayon on bar napkins between the second and third martinis.
But Nancy and Harry will wink and say that’s more like it. The CEOs will get their money. And they will not fly commercial again — until their next trip to D.C.
Go check out Jim’s Blog and subscribe to his rss feed while you’re there. It’s one of the most entertaining conservative blogs you’ll ever see.
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