Desperate Detroit finds few allies

As automakers beg for a taxpayer bailout, past mistakes come back to haunt them

DETROIT -- When the leaders of the three Detroit auto companies and the United Automobile Workers union travel to Washington to make their case for a federal bailout, they will be flying into stiff headwinds of public opinion.

Thus far, much of the commentary in Washington, in the pages of major newspapers and on the Web has been against providing financial support for the companies, which they will say in hearings beginning today that they desperately need.

The waves of criticism have been so strong that Susan Tompor, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, was moved to write on Sunday's front page: "I never knew Detroit was a dirty word."

It is a remarkable shift for an industry that has long wielded considerable clout in Washington.

But that support has dwindled for many reasons, and supporters of a bailout, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are having a tough time making their case that Detroit should be saved.

So how did the famous 1953 quote from former General Motors president Charles E. Wilson -- that what was good for our country was good for GM, and vice versa -- become a dated notion to so many people?

A fall from grace

Analysts and longtime observers of the industry say several strategic missteps have hurt Detroit's standing.

The carmakers, for example, fought hard in recent years against two congressional efforts to raise fuel economy standards, at a time when Americans were struggling with more expensive gasoline and had become more environmentally conscious.

They won the 2005 fight, when 67 senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and John Kerry, D-Mass., sided with Detroit's argument that it did not have the technology to meet a modest increase.

But Detroit lost last year's effort to block an increase to 40 miles per gallon by 2020. Some senators criticized the industry's failure to sell cars like the Toyota Prius that was built only as a hybrid -- a vehicle that GM vice chairman Robert A. Lutz dismissed early on as a public relations move.

Turning their backs

Some congressional support has also dwindled because the automakers closed plants in states, like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Delaware, and consolidated their operations closer to home.

Meanwhile, foreign auto companies have built plants across the South, where lawmakers -- like Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. -- are amenable to the foreign car companies.

And one of the UAW's most prized accomplishments -- winning income security for its laid-off members -- is not helping the union as it argues for money to help protect its workers at a time when employees across other industries are facing layoffs.

The UAW program, called the Jobs Bank at GM, provided nearly full pay for laid-off workers while they waited for new jobs. A new version of it is less generous, but has left an impression in the public imagination of a place where workers sit around getting paid for doing nothing.

"In good times, the public can tolerate the Jobs Bank," said Gary N. Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "But in bad times, the public has very little patience for that."

The Bush administration has steadfastly opposed giving automakers a chunk of the $700 billion banking bailout. While President-elect Barack Obama has said the auto industry should get assistance, "I think that it can't be a blank check," he said Sunday on "60 Minutes."

Michigan's congressional delegation, led by Democrats Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. John D. Dingell, the industry's longtime champion, have been left to plead hardest for federal help. GM and Ford Motor are among the heaviest spenders on Washington lobbying, according to OpenSecrets.org, a Web site that tracks political contributions.

Snub from trade group

In arguing for a bailout, Detroit's automakers and the union have found themselves without much help from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade group that was a key player in last year's fuel economy debate.

The group, whose 11 members include Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen, successfully blocked efforts to impose even higher fuel economy standards. Its members support letting the carmakers tap $25 billion approved by Congress last year to retool aging auto plants, but the alliance has not lobbied for any additional money, a spokesman said on Monday.

That pretty much has left the Detroit executives and the union, whose president, Ron Gettelfinger, typically keeps a low profile, to go it alone.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Gettelfinger appeared on local TV in Detroit this week, but no Detroit representatives landed spots on the Sunday morning talk shows out of Washington. Levin was their primary spokesman on NBC's "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" on CBS.

Meanwhile, Shelby of Alabama, whose home state has Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and Hyundai plants, has kept up his pressure. Appearing on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, he called Detroit "a dinosaur, in a sense."

"There's not a bank in this country that would lend a dollar to these companies," he added.