Bailout Watch 564: TN Senator Corker Calls GMAC A "Zombie"

I was most gratified when the MSM adopted my nickname for then-GM Car Czar Bob Lutz, recognizing the crock of shit guy as Maximum Bob. (While they missed the irony, that only made it more delicious.) I’m now pleased to report (for my own selfish, ego-maniacal reasons) that the term “zombie”—as applied to Uncle Sam’s nationalized automaker and other bailout queens—may about to leave the TTAC orphanage for the big, wide world. Its champion: Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. You may remember Corker as the only politician who pissed into Motown’s begging bowl, publicly grilling the Big Three’s CEOs when they jetted in to D.C. for a taste. (Thank you George Bush.) Here’s Corker’s press release on the Obama administration’s unspecified “request” for the next round of bailout bucks for GMAC. “Continuing life support to an institution like GMAC is a major mistake,” said Corker. “It creates enormous risk to taxpayers, is an inappropriate use of government subsidies to support jobs in a specific sector of the economy, and continually breathes new life into a zombie institution that should be seized and resolved. At what point are we going to stop propping up zombie institutions to support industrial policy through our banking system?” And here comes the right hook. . .

TARP, which was put in place during a period of crisis, has turned into an economic stimulus slush fund for the administration at the expense of Americans and should expire at the end of the year when Congress intended.

The implications of codifying TARP, as the Obama administration has proposed, are extraordinary. Their draft language regarding resolution authority clearly enshrines the ‘Too Big to Fail’ mentality, essentially allowing the government to use unchecked taxpayer monies to prop up failed institutions at the expense of successful companies and hard working Americans . . . GMAC gives us a glimpse into the future under the Obama administration’s plans for resolution authority. We need to end this ‘Too Big to Fail’ mentality now.”

So “zombie” is it. eh? [Hat tip to Frank Williams on that one.]

As we wait to see if that meme has legs, it’s clear that the pol who called for the government to place GM and Chrysler into a blind trust is going to be the republican point man on this bailout business. Any ideas for a nickname for Senator Corker? “The wise Latina”? No, that’s not it . . .