Washington Post — GM Chief to Resign at White House’s Behest
The Obama administration seems to be pretty excited about sacking GM’s CEO, with leaks and process pieces abounding Sunday and Monday in advance of the White House roll out for the tough love approach for the failed automaker and it’s even sicker competitor, Chrysler.
Writer Peter Whorisky’s useful piece puts into perspective just what a horrible and impossible job it is to be CEO of what has become a health-care provider and pension fund that happened to make cars. Running AIG will seem like a dream gig compared to steering a bailed-out GM.
Not discussed are the consequences of the administration taking such a direct role in the management of GM, but those will appear when the administration lays out the full scope of its rules and financial commitment.
“The government is willing to pump more working capital into Chrysler over the 30 days during which it is supposed to reach an agreement with Fiat. It will lend another $6 billion to Chrysler if that agreement is reached. Under the terms of the ongoing negotiations between the two companies, Fiat would take a minority stake in Chrysler that is less than 35 percent, but which could grow to as much as 49 percent. The administration is not calling for Chrysler chief executive Robert L. Nardelli to resign, in part because he is negotiating the Fiat deal.
The amount that GM may borrow from the government will depend upon the government’s ongoing review of the company, administration officials said.”
New York Times — Merkel Is Ready to Greet, and Then Resist, Obama
Most presidents attend their first meeting of world powers looking to form bi-lateral bonds that can help for later initiatives and avoid wearing any local costume that’s truly silly. Barack Obama is going to the G20 meetings in London with a very specific set of demands for the 19 other developed economies.
He wants more money for rebuilding Afghanistan. He wants the other 19 countries to undertake a stimulus plan like the one he pushed through at home. He wants the International Monetary Fund to start air dropping more cash into troubled economies.
And for all of Europe, the task of telling Obama “no” falls to Germany’s Angie Merkel ]. And, really, she doesn’t have much choice.
“Mrs. Merkel, 54, a Protestant minister’s daughter from the former East Germany, is neither a sparkling orator nor a flashy personality, but her sober steadiness seems to fit a crisis-humbled era. At a time of high-wire statesmanship, when the public keeps reimagining what constitutes the worst-case scenario, Mrs. Merkel projects the image of a steady leader.
Yet she finds herself at the helm of the world’s largest exporter of goods at a moment when world trade is collapsing. She is in the homestretch of her first term, facing re-election in less than six months by an electorate wary of the government’s trying to spend its way out of trouble, not to mention the war in Afghanistan that Mr. Obama has inherited and is pressing with more troops and resources.”
Wall Street Journal — U.S. to Allow North Korea Test Launch
The Obama administration has settled on a course of action for the upcoming North Korean missile launch. The U.S. is not going to pay Kim Jong Il any attention or try to disrupt the test.
Writer Jay Solomon explains that as the American line on the regime in Pyongyang recedes from Axis of Evil to forced indiffrence, folks in the neighborhood – especially South Korea — are getting anxious.
“Some senior U.S. officials have said that the Obama administration doesn’t want to take any actions that could destabilize North Korea or give Kim Jong Il reasons to unilaterally pull out of negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program. At the same time, Asia experts said, a too-mild U.S. response to the expected test launch could lead Tokyo and Seoul to conclude that they need to take a more aggressive approach to addressing their own security needs.
‘There could be the perception that the U.S. is beginning to accommodate itself” to a North Korea with nuclear arms,’ said [David Asher, who helped oversee North Korea strategy during former President George W. Bush’s first term.]”
Politico — Dems fear defections in PMA probe
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., keeps pushing a bill that would launch an investigation into the Democratic Jack Abramoff – John Murtha’s patron, Paul Magliocchetti, the founder of defense lobby form PMA. The bill had little Democratic support at first, but as the FBI investigation and inquiring reporters churn up more and more dirt on Maglicchetti and his campaign connections to Murtha, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., and others, bpartisan support is starting to emerge.
If Flake succeeds, the consequences could be as dire for the Democratic majority as Abramoff was for Republicans in 2006.
“Flake introduced his first PMA resolution as Congress took up the $410 billion omnibus spending bill in February. The 17 Democrats who backed that initial resolution included a number of recent arrivals who could face tough reelection fights next year — Reps. Debbie Halvorson of Illinois, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Harry Teague of New Mexico. Four similarly positioned Democrats joined them on the second vote: Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright, whose conservative district requires him to vote with the GOP on most controversial measures; Illinois Rep. Bill Foster, elected last year to the seat vacated in 2007 by former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert; and two first-term Democrats who knocked off incumbent Republicans last fall — Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick and Florida Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, who made ethics a centerpiece of her campaign against then-GOP Rep. Tom Feeney.”
Los Angeles Times — In Louisiana, the tide may be turning on corruption
Though writer Howard Witt resists it mightily, he almost acknowledges the political significance of Louisiana’s new distaste for corruption. The state is going for more Republics and official probity will be part of any presidential quest by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Witt is rather silly about avoiding mentioning parties and doesn’t include corruption crusade Jindal until the 16th paragraph, but he does provide a useful look at what’s changed and the battles remaining to be fought.
“New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who campaigned for office seven years ago as a reformer, has resisted news media requests to release his official city e-mails and refused City Council demands to fire the official who oversaw the surveillance camera contract that is under investigation. Nagin’s office also put up administrative and financial roadblocks as the city’s first inspector general tried to set up his office in 2007.”
