The Big Three auto companies certainly deserve blame for some bad management and production decisions. But what many critics and politicians haven’t acknowledged is that the current crisis is much bigger than Detroit and is not primarily a referendum on the quality of American-made automobiles.
Sales of foreign cars are down dramatically, too. For example, Toyota sales dropped 34 percent last month, and it expects to have its first operating loss in 70 years. Canada and Europe are approving multi-billion dollar aid packages for auto manufacturing companies in their countries.
Given all that history has learned about Watergate, it’s remarkable that some people would see Mark Felt, the former FBI insider aka “Deep Throat,” as having been wrong to tell the Washington Post what he knew about the burglary and White House cover-up. Felt’s actions surely were motivated, at least in part, because he’d been passed over to succeed J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director. But Felt deserves credit for doing the right thing in an administration full of people doing the wrong thing. As Post reporter Bob Woodward said of Felt, who died Thursday: “This is a man who did his duty to the Constitution.”
If Kansas Republicans really do see a 2010 primary clash of the titans for the U.S. Senate seat, between Reps. Todd Tiahrt of Goddard and Jerry Moran of Hays, the western two-thirds of the state may not see much of either of them that summer. As Kansas State University political science professor Joe Aistrup told CQPolitics last week: “They’re facing off in a situation where Moran will do well in the 1st District. I think you’ll see Tiahrt do well in the Wichita area. Really, it will be the Kansas City area and the 2nd Congressional District that will determine who is winner of that primary.”
There has been a lot of talk of the Big Three automakers as if they’re all in the same sinking boat. Columnist George Will views Ford as an exception because of upbeat CEO Alan Mulally (right), a native Kansan and former Boeing executive. Will notes that “Ford is not asking Congress for money. It is asking only for access to money if there should be what Mulally delicately calls ‘a significant industry event’” – meaning a GM bankruptcy, which would threaten parts manufacturers. Will suggests that if there was to be a car czar, which he called “silliness on stilts,” the person’s job would involve supervising GM’s downsizing. He concludes: “Anyway, the most qualified person for that ill-conceived and unenviable position already has a more promising job, as Ford’s CEO.”
The Big Three auto companies certainly deserve blame for some bad management and production decisions. But what many critics and politicians haven’t acknowledged is that the current crisis is much bigger than Detroit and is not primarily a referendum on the quality of American-made automobiles.
