No corporate socialism for automakers

Or so it seems. The Big Three flew their private jets to DC with very natty, custom-made hats in hand for a little government scratch to tide ’em over for a while.

Looks like maybe they should have flown coach on a commercial carrier and crawled in with moth-eaten ski caps. Image is everything there guys.

From the link:

A year-end drive to win new aid for the ailing auto industry was near collapse in Congress on Wednesday, pulled down by old resentments toward Detroit’s Big Three and continued fighting between Democrats and the outgoing Bush administration.

Midwestern senators mounted a last push to try to craft a compromise $25 billion loan package to be administered by the Commerce Department and financed in a manner acceptable to the White House. But even on a day of punishing economic news, the leadership vacuum in Washington is such that many prefer to leave any bailout in the hands of the two men who have handled so many already: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Also from the link:

“They don’t have a lot of chits here. They have people who are upset at them,” Reid told Politico. “I want to help them. It’s not the companies. I want to help the workers. That’s where I am. The people who work there deserve our attention. But the path has been laid by these bosses who came here yesterday on their corporate jets. … They all flew down here in their corporate jets. It’s just not the right picture.”