Beat the Dealer-Is the Obama administration turning Chrysler into a patronage machine?(dealergate)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 5-27-09 | James Taranto

[STARWISE]

When people talk about the problems that have driven Chrysler to bankruptcy and General Motors to the brink thereof, they usually have in mind the companies' excessive commitments to those who build their cars: the high wages, lavish benefits and irrational work rules written into union contracts.

*snip*

Closing down dealers thus requires a big outlay of cash that produces dividends only in the long run:

It cost GM $583 million to compensate its 699 Oldsmobile dealers after it decided in 2000 to phase out the brand. That's $840,000 per. . . . *snip*

"What dealers need to do is look at the criteria Chrysler said it used and look at how you performed on those metrics," said Silverman.

Those criteria included sales volume, customer service scores, local market share and average household income in the immediate area.

But what if one of the criteria is partisan politics? Blogger Doug Ross raises that possibility:

A tipster alerted me to an interesting assertion. A cursory review by that person showed that many of the Chrysler dealers on the closing list were heavy Republican donors.

*snip*

It would also demonstrate that political intervention in private business is an invitation for the most brazen sort of corruption.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

Thanks for the heads up about the thread.

[STARWISE]

Mack McClarty .. former Clinton chief of staff and still
close buddy.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

For the WSJ to have mentiond it....WOW.

I have a feeling this may be something the MSM will not be able to keep hidden for too much longer.

[Erik Latranyi]

WSJ, this has FINALLY grown some legs.

What a change since Rupert owns it!

[ml/nj]

The Bill of Rights originally was understood to restrain the authority only of the federal government, but after the Civil War, the Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment had extended most of these restraints to states as well, under a doctrine known as "incorporation."

It's a bit of a joke to suggest that "after the Civil War" the Court extended the Bill of Rights to apply to the States. Yesterday was "after the the Civil War" too. In fact, as with most outrageous leaps the Court has made, this extension only began to occur after everyone involved in drafting the 14th Amendment or in the debates about ratification was dead. Can anyone imagine the uproar that might have occurred if James Madison reading a modern decision, basically said, "No, you pinheads. That's not what we meant"?

ML/NJ

[bvw]

Look for the FR threads and link to them, celebrate us!

[MHGinTN]

We are witnessing fascist tactics by this affirmative action figure fraud-in-chief and most Americans either don’t realize it or don’t give a darn so long as their bread and Idol continue to flow.

[NC28203]

>>>I think they’ll also find that a lot of the dealerships have been taken from families and passed along to minority-owned companies

Of the 789 Chrysler dealers who were notified that their contracts will not be renewed, 38 are minority owned. At the end of April, there were 154 minority dealers in Chrysler’s 3,181 total U.S. dealer body network. You’ll see that 4.8% of the auto dealerships closed were minority owned. Total percentage of all Chrysler dealerships that are minority owned? 4.8%

[nascarnation]

I say one thing for the Baraqqis....
when it comes to a power grab, they make the Clintons look like prep schoolers.

[NC28203]

Just a note about some errors in the statistics. You are applying overall population percentages to local markets. This creates a problem. For example, in a random pull, the odds that all three dealers in Bentonville will be among the 789 closed are .25*.25*.25 = .015. But we know in reality that at least one of those dealerships will remain open, so the population percentages do not apply. The odds of the RLJ dealership remaining open in Bentonville are 1 in 3 if done randomly. This of course ignores any factors such as sales and performance. Given some of the money behind this group (Bob Johnson is a billionaire) these dealerships might be better capitalized and better performing than some of their competitors. There may be corruption or it may be performance based. Further investigation will tell, but please don’t muddy the water with bad statistics.

[pepsionice]

There is a simple side to this episode...let the surviving Chrysler dealer know that you are finished...and no one in your family will buy a Chrysler product. Then you turn around and send a couple of letters to the top five car rental companies in the US. Tell them...Chrysler cars aren’t on your list to rent....and if they can’t offer an alternate choice...forget about business.

Whatever survival that Chrysler was thinking about...is now gone. The money that congress gave them to survive...never to be paid back. The political figures who worked this entire game? Take a guess.

[KansasGirl]

CORRUPTION, plain and simple. Clearly illustrates the problem with strong centralized Gov’t. The American people will not stand for this if informed.

[Vaduz]

If informed,that’s the hard part the msm is hiding the truth

[<1/1,000,000th%]

FDR in the house!

[Oldexpat]

Your math isn’t right.
Correct it, because your basic facts are good information.

[Islander7]

I didn’t do the stats. I provided a link to the blogger who did the stats. Perhaps you should send this info to him.

[NC28203]

>>>Your math isn’t right.
This what excel gives me:
38/789 = 0.048162231 = 4.81%
154/3181 = 0.048412449 = 4.84%

[Onelifetogive]

I have a feeling this may be something the MSM will not be able to keep hidden for too much longer.

I think the sentiment in this statement is wrong. I don't care if the MS keep news hidden. The correct sentiment, IMHO, is, "How moch longer will it be until it does not matter at all that the MSM is ignoring news?" Few educated and informed people trust the MSM for news anymore. It is somewhat by definition, if you get your news from the MSM, you are NOT informed.