Top GOP leaders sending message to Big 3: Drop dead

Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Daniel Howes
Top GOP leaders sending message to Big 3: Drop dead





Big-name Republicans are tramping around Michigan -- Karl Rove is expected at a fundraiser today in Grosse Pointe, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman is campaigning for Senate hopeful Mike Bouchard and President Bush is rumored to be planning a campaign swing next month.

But meet with Detroit's automakers? Nah, why should the president care whether U.S.-owned automakers, burdened by fierce foreign competition and cumulative decisions that threaten to swamp them, are fighting for their collective lives? Instead, key Republicans and the White House are reprising President Ford's message to New York back in the mid-'70s: "Drop dead."

Such cynicism toward a bedrock industry -- let the Blue-Staters wither -- would be comical if it wasn't so misguided, even dumb.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told the Washington Post that "there's a new definition of the American auto industry. Twenty-five years ago, it was the Big Three companies in Detroit. Now (it's) any company that makes a substantial number of cars and trucks in the U.S. and has a big payroll here, pays big taxes here and buys supplies here."

Nissan equals GM?

Meaning, evidently, that the Nissan operations in Tennessee and the new Hyundai plant in Alabama are indistinguishable from GM and Ford. Politically, perhaps, but not economically.

Added Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama: "The way (Detroit automakers) do business has to change or they won't be around. The competition has been brought to our shores. There is a lot that our automobile manufacturers can learn in the world."

There's also a lot that Red State Republicans could learn about the Detroit automakers and their legacy commitments to retirees and active employees, namely that they're not easily shed this side of bankruptcy.

But it's easier to ignore context, demonize unions, embrace the new guys from overseas who don't carry the same baggage and then give Detroit a condescending geography lesson -- as if the No. 1 player in China, GM, doesn't know the business is global.

Different set of rules

In any other major auto-producing nation, politicians don't ignore the concerns of their auto industry. Not in France and Germany, where nationalism infuses economic policy. And not in Japan or South Korea, where manipulating currencies and erecting trade barriers is acceptable to help the home team -- and Detroit isn't asking for either one.

Here? The president won't meet with the bosses of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group. But he'll sit astride a Harley, visit a Nissan truck plant, herald the Toyota engine that won the Indy 500, campaign for Republicans and then have his press secretary swear there's no snub of Detroit.

Rep. John Dingell ain't buying it. "Manufacturing is going to hell in this country, and the president just sits there fiddling while Rome burns," the Dearborn Democrat told me.

That's debatable (as Sens. Alexander and Shelby would attest). What isn't is that however the recapitalization of Detroit ends, no credit will be due to the Washington GOP power crowd.

Daniel Howes' column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at dchowes@detnews.com.







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