One has to look long and hard to find many folks supporting a taxpayer bailout for the automakers in Detroit. The issue seems to have galvanized conservatives, liberals and everyone in between to consensus - incompetence shouldn't be rewarded and some kind of economic Darwinism ought to be the rule.
The Congressional Democrats (and Barack Obama) position is a bailout will be required in order to save the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would be lost should the automakers go belly up. But those Democrats are making it clear they will be holding their noses as they cast the vote. It seems more likely they'll be spared having to vote any time soon, as it's unlikely Congress will take up the matter before this Congress ends.
And Marc Ambinder's story won't help garner much sympathy for a bailout.
This
morning, Ford's chief executive officer, Alan Mulally, arrived on
Capitol Hill driving a new Ford Fusion Hybrid. The press knew this was
going to happen because Ford's PR machine sent word to daybook editors
yesterday.
One could forgive the company for this photo-op; after all, Detroit is
very anxious to prove that it gets why people are so frustrated, and it
gets why fuel efficient cars are its future. And the Ford Fusion is a
pretty good car. If the company's ethos is changing, then maybe the
photo op is even intellectually honest.
No one expects Mulally to drive from Detroit (or Seattle, where he
lives) to Washington in a hybrid. Heck, we don't expect him to fly to
DC in coach class; that would be sanctimonious and cheap. He's still a
CEO....
But you've got to wonder whether anyone in Mulally's inner
circle was thinking through the consequences of allowing the CEO to
travel to Washington on the company's own private jet as they're
seeking a bailout -- the failure or success of which depends
on the automakers winning a public relations battle.... within which
the company has to prove that (a) it really is running out of cash (b)
its management is cutting back on expenses and (c) management gets it.
It reminds me of the AIG parties a couple weeks after the Administration provided an $85B bailout package. Some of these folks are just brain dead.
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