People are making a big thing about the senators from TN, ALA, LA, MISS and ALA voting down the GM loan. But this behavior is very typical of these men........anything that smacks of innovation, positive change or improvement, they are likely to be on the negative side of the equation. After all, its not the first time we've heard from Shelby, Sessions, Corker et al. Corker was the one who ran racist commercials against Harold Ford.....showing a blond white woman talking about how cute Ford was....suggesting that Ford was bedding down white women and that was a problem. And Sessions along with some of these other senators have worked hard in keeping Amtrak from going forward as one can see in this article. Its very frustrating.
I can't figure out their game on this...Toyota appealed for relief for Detroit, on the grounds that a demise would be disruptive to them. I can only assume that the Japanese makers fear a backlash against their brands...not sure.
Several things.........they want to protect the foreign brands who have plants in their states, they are responding to their constituents and it goes against their ideology. By their very nature, most ideologues are not very flexible and conservative ideologues want the gov't to stay out of everything except the military.
BTW I had to amend my original comments........Corker actually tried to get his colleagues to be more flexible but they wouldn't listen to him. In fact, Dodd sang Corker's praises. As I posted to inode, Corker has a strong background in starting up businesses. He is a real asset when it comes to these negotiations.
At the bottom of the 8th, Corker is on base, Bush is on base, the UAW is on base, and its only your senators and their friends who are striking out. Hopefully, that will change in January. It wouldn't hurt to call your senators and tell them how you feel. Right now, they are hearing only from those who are opposed to the auto loans. |
