Right off the bat, the NY Times sees fit to put some distance between the Obama takeover of G.M. and the failure to "address deadly safety problems".
The preliminary inquiry by federal prosecutors in New York is focused on whether G.M., the nation’s largest automaker, failed to comply with laws requiring timely disclosure of vehicle defects. The prosecutors, one of the people said, are questioning whether G.M. misled federal regulators about the extent of the problems.It's one thing to use the IRS to make it harder for tea parties to get off the ground, quite another, to possibly threaten the safety millions of Americans take for granted, when they get behind the wheel of their presumably safe automobiles.
The investigation is the latest in a widening series of threats to G.M. over its handling of faulty ignition switches in its Chevrolet Cobalt sedan and other cars that the company says are linked to 31 accidents and 13 deaths. READ MOREI started reading this story last night, but I didn't quite make the connections back to the administration, possibly micromanaging G.M., to make the company a re-election prop. Although, I did remember the Joe Biden Democratic Party Convention "Osama Bin Laden is Dead and General Motors is Alive" mantra. It was politically powerful.
Here is Liz Peek, of The Fiscal Times, asking some pertinent questions about the possible White House interference...
Did the Obama administration purposefully hide problems with GM cars? Were they panicked that a massive recall of GM products would undermine one of President Obama’s most self-congratulatory campaign themes – that he “saved” Detroit’s auto industry? This is a tale of two car companies: GM, shining star in President Obama’s reelection galaxy, and Toyota, which became political fodder...Skipping down...
By 2011 there had been 204 complaints lodged. In 2010 then-Congressman Barney Frank inquired on behalf of a constituent about the multiple accidents apparently brought on by the random deceleration issue. He was told by NHTSA that it had “insufficient evidence to warrant opening a safety defect investigation.” By that time, there had been several fatalities related to Cobalts’ stalling. Still, NHTSA did nothing.Yes, Ray LaHood was/is a republican politician, precisely why I would like to hear what he has to say under oath.
At the same time, after the Obama administration had orchestrated a government takeover of General Motors, NHTSA hit Toyota with its largest-ever fine and demanded a recall of some 9 million cars and trucks. Over several years, NHTSA had received more than 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration in Toyotas; there had been some 75 fatal crashes. Though the incidents of problems continued to mount, it was not clear at the time of the recall what exactly accounted for the mishaps. The Wall Street Journal announced that a report attributing most of the accidents to driver error had been “temporarily blocked” by safety officials, acting under the direction of Secretary of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. READ MORE
"Because of the calls he made"
18 comments:
Under Eric Holder, "Justice Department" has become a contradiction in terms.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how could this be spun in Obama's favor.
I'm sure the press is going to try... maybe I'll think of something later in the day.
It has the Benghazi political signature in that it confirms what has been shown over and over again. And that is that most, if not all government agencies were drafted into the re-elect Obama campaign, regardless of the consequences.
Nixonian stuff.
or it would confirm... should the paper trail lead back to the White House.
Obama's War Room made Clinton's War Room a boy's scout operation.
What is a community organizer to do once having arrived at the pinnacle of one if not the worlds largest organization but to marshal those resources to stay there?
For Obama not to use what was at his disposal would probably be considered by him as a waste.
"Leaving money on the table" is how FLOTUS Michelle would put it.
Somebody should do an Obama re-election death-toll.
A real postmortem.
As Pinellas County goes so goes the nation! Total slaughter of Dems come November. Not one of them will be able to run away from the Obamacare horror. All the misdirection in the world won't work this time. If you hate your Dem you can dump your Dem, PERIOD!
That Indian film maker should count his blessings he is only getting prosecuted.
And G.M. has hired outside lawyers to lead its own review of why it failed to fix or replace switches tied to a mounting toll of fatal accidents.
Outside lawyers?... I'm assuming that only means GM has had it's own lawyers and these "outside" lawyers have no previous ties to GM are coming in ... what do they say at the used car lot? CLEAN?
It appears that Obama went after Toyota hard, Chicago stile, while hiding the GM problems.
Only Romney would get hit harder.
Although, by the time the historians get thru the papers they manage to find, thru the freedom of information act and other maneuvers, who knows?
GM should have been allowed to fail.
Dismantle what killed it - the Auto Unions - and then sell off the pieces. Perhaps to auto manufacturers who know how to make quality products without leftwing neo-fascist thug authoritarian pols and corrupt unions stealing from the trough for the political payback schemes and thugocracy at the top of the union food chain.
As someone once said, "Da chickens be comin' home to roost".
ricpic said...
As Pinellas County goes so goes the nation! Total slaughter of Dems come November. Not one of them will be able to run away from the Obamacare horror. All the misdirection in the world won't work this time. If you hate your Dem you can dump your Dem, PERIOD!
And cut the Libertarian guy off at the knees?
The same day the government sells it's GM shares, at a 10 billion dollar loss, GM appoints a woman CEO. I suspect that those two
actions were related.
One thing is true. Once the investigations start a lot of people are going to sing to save their ass. They have no reason to be loyal to Obama unless he gives them a pardon.
I think it is quite possible that he will issue a blanket pardon to anyone who worked in his administration.
Holder. Jarrett. All of them. So they will keep his secrets. He will just claim that racist Republicans are on a witch hunt and he is protecting them from partisan attacks. Wait and see.
Lerner will get one for sure.
I don't think I'm cynical enough yet to believe this, but I'm getting close.
Well, I guess I mean that I don't think there was total coordination, just a bunch of true believers who didn't want to make the Messiah look bad.
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