Sometime you come across written words and say to yourself "I wish I had written that". The following is such an article. It is written by Daniel Howes of the Detroit News and it reflects the feelings of many Michiganders. I hope you enjoy it:
Posted by Daniel Howes (-->The Detroit News-->) on Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Whither the Dems of Michigan's supine congressional delegation?
Whither the Dems of Michigan's supine congressional delegation?
Carl Levin nailed it today: President Obama's direct talk of bankruptcy Monday is "self-defeating," the veteran senator from Detroit said. "It undermines the companies' economic position to talk about bankruptcy. They can do all the exploration they want (privately), but all the public exploration makes it more likely that that becomes the option used, and I think that would be a serious blow."
Yes, all the chatter -- especially the presidential kind -- does make "BK" more likely, and yes, it would be a serious blow.
To make Levin's point, the feds proposed a new program to guarantee warrantys of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC metal. And GM today unveiled a new "GM Total Confidence" program intended to induce skittish consumers to plump for Detroit metal despite their fears of losing a job, losing their local dealer or losing GM to bankruptcy. If nothing else, the program is evidence the "public exploration" lamented by Levin is having the exact effect he predicts.
Doubt that matters to the Obama White House, anymore than the accurate perception that the president unilaterally removed GM's CEO and began the process to recast the board of directors -- even though the government does not hold a single ownership share in the beleaguered automaker. Unprecedented? Pretty much. Strong arm? No question, not that you'll hear much "public" protest (Gov. Jennifer Granholm excepted) from Michigan Democrats in Congress.
Because they're defeated. Not by Republicans, but by the larger, stronger, lefter wing in their own party that hails from the coasts and is allied with an environmental lobby that considers Detroit, its automakers and much of the industrial heartland an obstacle that needs to be reconstituted in an image they deem to be appropriate, politically correct and, most of all, "green."
The market? They don't need no stinkin' market.
And the Michigan delegation -- the Levin brothers, Dearborn's Rep. John Dingell, the longest serving member of Congress -- look increasingly powerless to influence their own party, while the rest of the Dems in the Michigan delegation appear irrelvant to anything of remote importance to the critical economic issues of the day.
Late today, an e-mail arrived from Dingell's Washington office offering qualified praise for the Waxman-Markey energy & climate bill, officially titled "The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009." I read Dingell's comments. I gagged: "I look forward to continuing to work with Chairmen [Rep. Henry] Waxman [of California] and [Rep. Ed] Markey [of Massachusetts] to get a bill that reduces greenhouse gases by the levels the science tells us is necessary and that protects jobs and consumers."
Fine, except that they have no intention of working with Dingell. Or anyone else interested in balancing jobs and consumer costs against the march to environmental nirvana envisioned by congressional leaders whose states are mostly devoid of anything approaching industry.
They won. They don't have to compromise with their own caucus, much less deal with the opposition. Here, the job is to salute, lay down and roll over.
Some change!
The whole thing is confusing! I'm trying to get ahold of it all....watching Fritz on Meet The Press yesterday...I felt hopeful...but then he fell into the double-speak routine for a brief moment and I spiraled out of control.
ReplyDeleteThen....I figured out what was wrong....he went to UofM :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
(Yes hunny, I googled him) :)~~~~