Government Motors? Oh Yeah …
Politics and special interests now run General Motors – a company which should be making business decisions based on what is best for the company and its future and not what is best for some politician:
Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.) won a stay of execution on Thursday for a General Motors plant in his district that the automaker had announced it would close.
No other lawmaker has managed to halt the GM ax. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Frank oversees the government’s bailout program, known as TARP. Frank’s staff said the lawmaker spokes with GM CEO Fritz Henderson on Wednesday and convinced him to keep the Norton, Mass. plant open for at least 14 months.
Because what happens in about 14 months boys and girls?
The 2010 midterms. And who controls all the bailout programs? Why the guy who was able to change Government Motors mind on the plant in his district.
Of course had some backbench freshman congressman from a red state district made the same request, what do you suppose the answer would have been? It doesn’t get any more blatant than this — but who among our “leaders” has the stones to call him on it?
About the only thing you could hope for in this instance is a bankruptcy judge would say “no dice” and force GM to carry out its original plan, but as stagemanaged as this whole bankruptcy procedure is, I doubt something like that would happen.
~McQ
Disgraceful, I don’t usually have utter contempt for people, but Rep Frank makes me ill. He is a horrible person. Hes coniving, sneaky and dirty, but as you said, no one in government has the stones…
If Barney Frank were a Republican and did 1/100th of the crooked stuff he had done, the media would be all over him like flies on…well, you know. And, he would be called part of the “culture of corruption” by Nancy Shmancy Pelosi, and he would have been driven from office.
But, NO! Barney Frank, who fugged up the entire housing market with his support of subprime mortgages, remains in office to continue to do his dirty work, and when he comes on every media outlet save Fox (which actually deigns to question him), he is fawned upon and asked softball questions.
I ask: what in the name of hell has happened to my country?
What happened? Well, part of what happened is we let the people of Massachusetts have representation in Congress and the Senate.
Just can’t wait to see what GM looks like in 2012! ( for a sneak peek and maybe a bit of a laugh, you can get a look at the 2012 GM line at: http://firstconservative.com/blog/political-humor/political-humor-general-motors-in-2012 )
Frank, Obama and the host of Democrats now running the country have zero experience operating an enterprise responsible for developing and delivering a product at a profit. Profit in fact is something that Democrats extort via taxation for their own use.
At least the GM takeover will be an entertaining comedy of errors – expensive, but entertaining.
14 months ? Isn’t that August of 2010 ? 3 months before the election ?
14 months has the plant close with so little time for anybody to forget or relocate to save his sorry a$$.
Besides, it’s going to be hard to convince most folks 14 months form now that it was “Bush’s fault.”
If I was in his position I would make it now (so folks can start to forget) or 18+ months down the road.
Actually, I think Barney Frank knows that the stay of execution won’t last, but it makes him look good.
Oh, and the unemployment number looks worse than the Recovery Plan (or without it)
That plant wont close, id bet 50 bucks on it.
Bingo, Josh gets the prize. Barney is presuming all the plans are going to work out and when 14 months passes it will no longer be necessary to amputate this plant.
What’s important is keeping it alive NOW, and from here it’s life can be prolonged indefinitely.
The “White House” has already assured the new Mayor of Detroit that GM will not be leaving the Renaissance Center for cheaper headquarters elsewhere. Mayor Bing unable to compete in life! What a shame. It makes me wonder if the commissioner of the NBA made Dave Bing a super star by telling everyone to not try so hard against him when he was a basketball star. Such a storied career and all because the court was fixed.
Erb and Pogue claim the Chrysler dealership closures couldn’t possibly have any political motivations…yet here we see more car industry business decisions made on the basis of political calculation.
Re: dealerships, I would bet they did not close Republican donors, but instead listened to Democrat donors who begged for their businesses.
shoud read “did not close any Republican donors on purpose.”