Bailout Watch 477: Sacrificial Lamb, Anyone?
Ousted GM CEO Rick Wagoner is being posthumously hoisted onto a cross by Michigan’s Governor Granholm and the Detroit News, which is running a piece today entitled “GM Workers Upset That Wagoner Became Sacrificial Lamb.” Huh? Better him than them, right? “Here we got past all the bad media, all that fury during congressional hearings, and now they want him to resign,” says UAW Local 599 (Flint) Chair, Terry Everman. “It’s really a setback, because you don’t know what new direction GM will take.” And it’s not just the uncertainty that has workers in a kerfuffle over the Wagoner pink slip. “It just didn’t seem appropriate for the administration, rather than the board, to dictate,” says OnStar Manager, Bryan Bateman. “I think Rick was a sacrificial lamb in all this. I think he took one for the company.” Except that Red Ink Rick should have been dumped years ago, and the irresponsible board members that kept him around have been canned by Obama as well. Oh, yeah, and GM turned its fate over to the feds the second it took public bailout money. But, hey, one man’s sacrificial lamb is another man’s tasty entrée. To (you guessed it) more government intervention on behalf of the General. Of course.
But the best indication that it will take more than Wagoner’s head on a platter to turn around Detroit’s insular self-importance comes courtesy of the DetN‘s apologist advocacy group du jour. “Fighting Against International Restrictions; Industry and Manufacturing Advocacy Group for public Education,” or “Fair Image” runs a website that puports to tell “The Truth About American Manufacturing And Trade Policy.” And the site’s editor is the perfect foil for the DetN‘s brand of soft propaganda. “Washington just denied that government trade and energy policy had anything to do with the mess we are in, and replaced it with the head of Rick Wagoner,” says FI’s Chris Vitale. “It re-enforces this public image that it’s all the companies’ and workers’ fault. But the (federal government) just washed their hands of any responsibility for its unfair trade policies that created this environment.” Just think: instead of firing Rick Wagoner we could have just come up with a suite of protectionist policies to further insulate GM from foreign competition. Because loaning money to the General just isn’t enough.
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