Buck Stops Where, Part II

Earlier today I got carried away with the poetry of justice and made some harsh suggestions for what should be done with the decision makers (both auto executives and politicians-- and you can throw the banksters and Wall Street hucksters in with 'em) who have brought on the economic collapse of the automobile industry that is threatening to turn Bush's deep recession into a full blown Depression.

This morning on Face The Nation Chris Dodd didn't go quite as far as we did here at DWT but he did suggest that General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner be fired and that Chrysler just get it over with and merge with one of the other two companies before any federal aid is given out.

Asked if a change in leadership should be a condition of a bailout, Dodd who is helping to write the legislation, said, “I think it is going to have to be part of it.”

“Chrysler, is, I think, basically gone, probably ought to be merged,” Dodd said. Ford Motor Co. is the healthiest domestic automaker, he said.

Congress and the Bush administration are on the verge of completing a draft of legislation to provide about $15 billion to help GM, Ford and Chrysler.

President-elect Barack Obama, asked on NBC’s Meet the Press, whether the management of the automaker should be allowed to stay, said “it may not be the same for all the companies. But what I think we have to put an end to is the head- in-the-sand approach to the auto industry that has been prevalent for decades now.”

Now what about the members of Congress who voted for huge tax incentives for SUVs and voted against CAFE standards and against tax breaks for fuel efficient automobiles. Shouldn't they be fired as well?

Obama leveled with the public today about the economy. Do we just pat the crooked politicians and big-time crooks on the back, wish them well and move on? How about a recovery program? I mean they can't have spent all the billions they stole. I think a program of confiscation of all the ill-gotten gains would go a lot further than the Bush Regime's plans to perpetrate further theft with a car czar. Let's hope the lame Democrats aren't so lame as to let them get away with that too.

“If you look at the unemployment numbers... the fragility of the financial system and the fact that it’s an international system,” [the recession] “is a big problem, and it’s going to get worse... We’ve got to provide a blood infusion right now, make sure that the patient is stabilized... We’ve got to get the economy moving."