Auto Bailout Moves Risky For GOP Senators

[DainBramaged]

(you bet your ass it's risky)


Senate Republicans’ dramatic revolt against a White House-backed auto industry rescue plan is fraught with political risk.

While the high-stakes gambit places them squarely within the mainstream of anti-bailout public sentiment, at the same time it exposes the party to potentially devastating criticism that its failure to compromise doomed the Big Three automakers and deepened the economic recession.

Republicans argue that their rejection Thursday evening of a $14 billion loan package came in response to the concerns of angry taxpayers who are unwilling to pay for an auto industry bailout on the heels of October’s $700-billion financial bailout package.

"I think it would appear that the people who voted against this are carrying out the will of the voters as expressed through the phone calls to our offices," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

But that sentiment betrays the deep rifts the issue has revealed within the party, pitting Rust Belt and auto-state senators who joined Democrats in a plea for federal aid against their Southern colleagues who represent states where foreign-owned automakers constitute a significant economic presence. All of this takes place against the backdrop of an intraparty debate over whether the GOP has lost its core value of limited government.

“I’m not even thinking about the politics of it, I’m talking about the substantive part of it, the people who are losing their jobs, the suppliers and the automobile dealers,” said Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), who faces re-election in 2010 and was one of just 10 Republicans who voted to advance the bill Thursday night.

By opposing the automaker bailout, Republicans now find themselves vulnerable to charges that they are insensitive to ailing American auto companies and the millions of workers reliant on the domestic auto industry, a problem compounded by their inability to rally around a clear alternative to the $14 billion package of loans that had been backed by Democrats and the White House.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/12/politics/politico/main4664978.shtml

[navarth]

1. here's hoping they pay...BIG time

bastards.

[DainBramaged]

2. This time they made a terrible mistake, this time they will pay

I have said for DAYS that this marks the end of Republican politics in this country. They will not rule for a generation. I am positive, they have shown their true colors and they will be kicked out on their asses.


If the UAW survives intact through 2010 ans 2012, they will concentrate their efforts on defeating the cabal that tried to crush the big 3.

[navarth]

3. right on, Doug

[Bozita]

4. The only Repugs left in Michigan are Dick and Betsy DeVos.

Even Brooks Patterson (Oakland Co. exec) was ripping on the GOP. Bigtime!

[DainBramaged]

7. Good they deserve it big time.

[Kalyke]

8. And the Southern ones?

Well, I have a feeling that if the economy keeps disappearing around here, then the social issues will (finally) take a back door to politics.

Thus far, though, the South hasn't been hit too incredibly hard by the economy, except in the housing market. Unemployment is not to ridiculous proportions down here...


...yet.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Maybe we could throw shoes at them

[DainBramaged]

6. HAHAHAHAHAH YES my thoughts exactly, or at least show them the soles.