Alexander Panders to Rightwing Radio

Sen. Lamar Alexander has taken a vacation from reality with his recent obsession with the Government stake in General Motors, and his silly plan to create and distribute 120 million+ shares to American "taxpayers". Via Kleinheider:

“Today’s ‘Car Czar’ award goes to Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts for interfering in the operation of General Motors,” Alexander said. “Congressman Frank is Chairman of the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives. One might call it the ‘House Bailout Committee.’ Congressman Frank’s phone call to General Motors always is likely to be returned since the U.S. Treasury recently purchased 60 percent of GM and 8 percent of Chrysler with $62 billion of your tax dollars.”

Alexander referenced a June 5th article from the Wall Street Journal that drew attention to a call Congressman Frank made to General Motors (GM) President and CEO Fritz Henderson “to save a GM distribution center in Norton, Mass.” The full article can be found here.

Of course, the rub here is that Congress-critters call leaders in the business community all the time to make the case for why they should keep certain plants or facilities open, Frank's "interference" is nothing new in this regard, and my guess is that the Chairman of GM would be likely to take the call from a highly influential member of Congress regardless of whether or not the US Government owned a stake in their company.

On a similar note, ACK in his City Paper column considers the type of shareholder that President Obama will be, and wonders whether or not he'll make decisions about plant closings based on that district's voting habits. My personal feeling is that Obama and Co. are smart enough to know that if news that they were exerting political pressure on GM to make decisions based on electoral map, it would cause serious harm to his Presidency and a likely steep drop in the poll numbers.

The President will most likely keep as much distance between himself and GM as possible. They've thrown the company a lifeline because the the extraordinary circumstances and the potential for catastrophic failure in the auto industry, not just with GM but the hundreds of thousands of other employees and businesses whose fortunes would be hampered by a GM bust.