Ford CEO will drive to Washington for auto bailout hearings.
Ford CEO will drive to Washington for auto bailout hearings.
The CEOs of the Big Three automakers were heavily criticized for flying private jets to D.C. when they appeared on Capitol Hill a couple of weeks ago. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) commented, “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo.” Since that hearing, GM announced it was putting two of its five corporate jets out of service, but claimed it was not a reaction to the harsh treatment from Congress. Now, Ford CEO Alan Mulally is pledging to drive to Washington for auto bailout hearings this week:
“He’s driving,” a Ford spokesman, Mark Truby, wrote in an e-mail today about Mulally’s plans for sessions set to start on Dec. 4. A General Motors Corp. spokesman, Tony Cervone, said “it is safe to assume” CEO Rick Wagoner won’t use a company plane, while a Chrysler LLC spokeswoman, Katie Hepler, declined comment on Robert Nardelli’s travel plans.
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Nice gesture. If he pulls up in front of the Capitol in a Shelby Mustang the lawmakers will be throwing money at him.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pmThe Ford CEO is driving to the hearings in a Toyota. He wants to get there after all.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:26 pm“Ford CEO will drive to Washington for auto bailout hearings.”
The CEO can hitch a ride, take the bus, or ride a skateboard to Washington for all I care. If he doesn’t have a concrete plan to Congress to why he needs 25 billion bailout money for his company, he is hosed. Getting rid of the jets doesn’t guarantee the taxpayers that the Ford CEO is working for the employees’ benefit nor guarantee that he will have his tin cup out for more money. I think it is time for Congress to cut the cord once and for all of the Wall Street and corporate CEOs purses.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:27 pmHAHAHA…..IF THERE IS A GOD….PLEASE LET THAT VEHICLE BREAK DOWN AND CATCH ON FIRE.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:34 pmFord CEO will drive to Washington for auto bailout hearings.»
– - Chauffeured? They ought to drive an Escape hybrid.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:38 pmPlease tell me that might be the pinto in front of me…
December 1st, 2008 at 8:39 pmOnce again, otherwise intelligent, proud people are forced to bow down to the gods of political correctness.
If I were the CEO of Ford or any of the big three automakers, I would not grovel in front of the empty suits posing as representatives of the people.
It’s absolutely disgusting to listen to politicians lecture ANYONE on the proper way to conduct business. Especially when it is they who have helped cause the crisis in the first place!
December 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pmHow many years has it been that these companies kept producing huge suvs when they couldn’t sell them ? How long ago were they giving people some kind of tax break if they bought a 10 wheel drive 6 door 5 ton ‘big rig’ before $ 4.50 gasoline ? They could have been concentrating on changing the way they do business and what they produce to at least be competitive. I believe this is nothing but the government being in bed with the fuel companies telling the the auto manufacturers for quite a long while now ‘don’t worry bill, we got your back’.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:43 pmI don’t want any of their employees to be out of a job any more than I want to be out of a job but it’s their company that’s done it to them. I swear I feel like they should take the unknown billions of ‘rescue’ money for these bums and invest it into whatever it takes to get the employees back to work and tell the auto manufacturers to take a hike. The fu[king fuel companies should be able to completely re-build Detroit into a hybrid manufacturing sweat shop with all of the money they’ve been making.
One more thing. I’m not sure how many jets are in GM’s corporate fleet, but the ones they “put out of service” aren’t theirs anyway! They LEASE them, which makes the most business sense. Business sense is something totally foreign to the empty suits warming chairs on capitol hill…
December 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pmHi Tim.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:46 pmSo why are they going to grovel for the tax dollars of others?
One more thing Tim. Why should anyone care what you think. Do you have some expertise we are unaware of?
December 1st, 2008 at 8:47 pmdbadass,
Hey, I’m just one man with opinions, that’s all. I just like to bring a different perspective to the echo chamber, ya know?
December 1st, 2008 at 8:56 pmdbadass,
O.K., try to put yourselves in the shoes of the big three CEO’s for a minute.
They have been watching as for profit, financial firms get huge loans and/or bailouts to stave off collapse. They see that the economic crisis that affects their companies wasn’t of their making.
Why shouldn’t they ask for help? If anything, their companies are more deserving so to speak.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:59 pmThat’s fine but why do it in such a weird condescending manner?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:00 pmShould the struggling homeowner also not seek help for circumstances they themselves did not create? What happen to that imaginary can do personal responsibility bs of the right?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:02 pmTim Vaculik Says:
Its absolutly disgusting to read your ignorant propaganda. Do you think they are just ENTITLED to our tax dollars? You really think the rich in this country are royalty and can just demand our daughters if they want them and us peons are lower on the evolutionary ladder than CEOs. You are disgusting
December 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pmdbadass,
Well, I have had a streak of impatience lately. I guess all the negative feedback I have received here has caused me to just say f’it.
I don’t mean the good-natured kind, but rather the hateful, personal kind…
Sorry, I am engaging in behavior right now that I don’t like to see in others. I mean that I am rationalizing my behavior as being caused by something outside myself, when it’s really just my own reactions to what I see and hear every day.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pmTim Vaculik Says:
One more thing. I’m not sure how many jets are in GM’s corporate fleet, but the ones they “put out of service” aren’t theirs anyway! They LEASE them, which makes the most business sense. Business sense is something totally foreign to the empty suits warming chairs on capitol hill…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You mean like logic and decency are totally foriegn to you? Several Congressmen became RICH after starting their own businesses but hey why should this stupid post be any different than any other you NEVER know what you are talking about and you never need facts you have an ideology you have been brainwashed into, that you were TOLD to believe. You are simply pathetic
December 1st, 2008 at 9:07 pmdbadass,
Well, It’s an apples and oranges comparison with respect to homeowners vs. big corporations.
I’m not saying homeowners in particular are always to blame, but they took risks and sometimes they didn’t pan out.
Besides, there are now programs coming online to help homeowners at risk of default.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:08 pmTimmeh you are a punk. You come in here call us morons LIE about liberals then want to be all Oh I am just a joker and having fun why is everyone so mean to me. WWWWAAAAHHHHH. A six year old girl would die of embarassment to snivel so piteously. If you REALLY dont like personal attacks stop telling LIES about liberals and stop calling us names until then you are just a lying piece of dogturd trying to be manipulative because you have this delusion you are smarter than everyone else when in fact you are flat out stupid
December 1st, 2008 at 9:35 pmreally? Did gm, ford et al not gamble when they decided to produce hummers and suv’s despite knowing our energy situation? Should they not take the hit for their own bad judgement?
December 1st, 2008 at 10:23 pm#1,
If Mulally has the balls to show up in a Mustang, I’ll be cheering him on. Why not show up with an American icon?
I think the Escape Hybrid uses tech from Toyota, anyways, someone correct me if I’m wrong.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:58 pmI thought the Gremlin was an American icon? So Frances how are the boys down at the car club?
December 1st, 2008 at 11:00 pmIt’s okay to give the financial industry trillions of dollars, but not the automakers….hmmmm….
December 1st, 2008 at 11:13 pmBeing a true American Patriot, I only drive American Cars, a Chevy Corvette, and a Jeep Liberty, and will never ever buy a non-american companies car, ever.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:21 pmAny idiot that thinks American cars are less than others needs to test drive American cars.
I suppose being a true patriot you only buy American made electronic devices, clothing, and foodstuffs as well
December 1st, 2008 at 11:24 pmTell dbadass….When I can….I always look for American labels first.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:25 pmHow can you tell if something is made in the US or do you just want it to be a US owned company? What about US corporations which have large amounts of foreign investors? This whole buy American thing seems a little odd in a modern multinational corporate world. What about an American car assembled in Mexico versus a Japanese car manufactured in the US?
December 1st, 2008 at 11:33 pmIf they had an ounce of creative brain in thier inflated heads they would’ve lead a caravan of new model GM automobiles with GM factory workers to Washington DC!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:45 am#25,
You should take a gander at Ford’s quality ratings. That’s another argument you could use…
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:04 am“Drive,” or “be driven” in one of their corporate limos with one of their full-time corporate chauffeurs???
I can hardly imagine any of these clowns getting behind the wheel and actually driving for 9 hours!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 amferrarimanf355 Says:
Ford? Makers of the incredible exploding Pinto? Yeah, they will never get a dime of my money
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:53 amThe following letter, written by Ray Werner of Point Breeze, appeared in the Sunday, November 30 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and is right on the money!
“No imagination
When the chairmen of our three biggest automakers flew into the nation’s capital on their fuel-sucking corporate jets, it wasn’t just dumb, it was totally without imagination.
I worked in the advertising and marketing business for years and here’s what my clients would have done. They would have driven a hybrid car from Detroit to D.C., stopping only once to fill up, followed by a train of media folks, and arrived at the steps of our Capitol with a kind of engaging humility.
Their opening remarks to our congressmen would have been something like, “I arrived here this morning from Detroit in a car that cost me under 50 bucks for fuel but looks like a million. Help me make them, and we’ll turn this industry upside down. I’m not asking you to save our auto industry. I’m asking you to make it the best in the world.”
Then the chairmen would have driven back to Detroit in the same car, with billions of dollars in the trunk, and planned stops along the way for marketing events — and thousands of orders for the first new gas savers off the line.
Where’s their imagination?
Maybe Ford should hire Mr. Werner.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:30 amferrariman and Timmeh together and I missed it again-dang late night second job!
Empty suits know how to talk to other empty suits, Timmy? Maybe they could discuss those apples and oranges you are so fond of? They are all clueless as to what the poor people do in their lives because it has been so long since they have ever been there themselves, if they even were before. They (the politicians) need to talk to the engineers about all the ideas that they had scuttled right off the drawing boards. You know, all those plans for more energy efficiency? The ones the Big Three and Big Oil said were unnecessary because everybody really wants to drive a tank or a member replacement (that’s for you ferrariman) and dammit, $4 a gallon is nothing to those folks and don’t those Saudis and OPEC just love us for sucking up to their corporate teats?
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 amby the way, dbadass, #6 was damn funny to read this morning, but I have to remember not to be taking a sip of java when I read your posts.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:47 amIt doesn’t matter if it’s ‘assembled’ in America (typically of foreign made parts), Europe, or Asia, if it’s an automobile, it’s 100+ year old technology. They are all designed to begin falling apart at 90,000 miles. They all remain fundamentally a pile of nuts and bolts that ultimately rust out. The companies who produce them are all in bed with both the Oil and Banking industry, both of whom are run by corporate executives who would “DO” their Mommas for a buck. You think they care about the flag waving, Corvette driving, buy American-only patriot commenter above? Gimmie a break, and grow-up.
Now, beam me up, Scottie.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 am#32,
The Pinto was BMT- before my time (I was born in 1985), so I’m just going to assume that asploding cars were the results of a management team from long ago.
You shoulda brought up the asploding Crown Victoria Police Interceptors. It would have made your argument stronger, although that was also probably the result of a management team from long ago…
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 amSorry, rich boys, too little too late.
How anyone can see this as anything other than an attempt to placate the gov’t is a mystery to me.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 amFerraridude. You dont get tell me what arguments to make. I guess I will decide that. I dont really care what you DONT know about I assume that is a bottomless well. Ford KNEW the pinto would kill people and produced it anyway. That was PROVEN in court as they brought in the beancounters who were told to assess the dollar liability of those deaths instead of fixing the problem they killed Americans they will never get a dime of my money its just that simple
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pmJust like the cold war when everyone who didn’t agree with the U.S. was either a communist or a communist sympathizer. toki This poor crazy guy spent half a decade being tortured because a bunch
of stupid politicians araç sorgulama were sure the NVA
was in bed with the Russians (minimal help) and/or the Chinese (ancient enemy of the vietnamese). ssk sorgulama You would think he would have learned from others’
mistakes. Guess not. Republicans need an enemy. key ödemeleri This
century it apparently will be all Muslims, kredi all of whom must
be alQaeda operatives.
February 28th, 2009 at 7:53 pmYou dont get tell me what arguments to make araç sorgulama
March 18th, 2009 at 5:13 am