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Barney Frank intervenes in keeping district GM plant open.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  June 5th, 2009 at 08:04 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(Via Protein Wisdom) How fortunate the subjects* of MA-04 are to have as their overlord someone who can make certain that the collective pain of an automotive company bailout ends up collectively pain[ing] everybody else but them:

Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.) won a stay of execution on Thursday for a General Motors plant in his district that the automaker had announced it would close.

No other lawmaker has managed to halt the GM ax. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Frank oversees the government’s bailout program, known as TARP. Frank’s staff said the lawmaker spokes with GM CEO Fritz Henderson on Wednesday and convinced him to keep the Norton, Mass. plant open for at least 14 months.

GM announced Monday in its bankruptcy and restructuring plans it would close of nine of its plants and idle three others. The automaker said it would also shutter three service and parts operations by the end of the year — one of which is in Frank’s district.

Bad luck for the folks in the yet-to-be-determined plant that thought that their jobs were safe, and now have to lose them because MA-04′s subjects are special – more accurately, because their overlord is special – but I’m sure that the Democrats will find a suitably Republican district to punish.  After all, once you’ve decided that some animals are more equal than others, why not go whole hog, as it were?

Moe Lane

PS: This would be the time where I would suggest that the subjects of MA-04 should make the decision that they want to be citizens, again: only, I can’t quite make myself believe that there’s any chance that the suggestion would work.

*That should be an insult that would start fights in bars in this country; but it’s not.  Alas.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • bobojake

    ACORN has recieved 53 million so far and is set to receive another 3 billion of Tarp funds through Barney Franks Housing Bill. Go to Michele Bachmann site for details but we have to stop Barney Frank and his foney legislation.
    Good old boy Barney if there is a pie with money in it Barney had his fingers in it. STOP BARNEY TODAY.

  • http://www.RedState.com/ETCartman Kenny Solomon
  • itdiehard

    the new GM… Everyone one of the 535 will be looking out for their districted… For GM to be competitive the government will have to supplement half the car cost….

  • 6eorge Jetson
  • USNJIMRET

    his response, the few seconds I could tolerate his voice, was to claim that the Bush Administration had ‘given’ ACORN some xx million dollars in eight years. Further, he made it sound as if whatever criminal enterprises ACORN is, was known to the Bush Administration, and was FOX saying that the Bush Administration had done nothing about that?
    Just cant argue with ‘logic’ like that.

  • gazill

    time that these interviewers start to rudely reply with something like “I do not see anyone from the Bush Administration here, just you,” or “Man up (sorry) and answer the damn question and quit hiding behing the previous administration.” How long are the media going to let these guys pass the buck without question?

  • izoneguy

    http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2009/04/10/house-panel-hears-testimony-acorn-corruption-coercion

    GM. ACORN all peas in the pod now. GM has been “given” $50 Billion yet Barney Frank has the gall to step-in and “save” his
    new GM buddies? I wonder what kind of car old Barney drives???
    Or should I say what kind of car does his chauffeur drive?

  • mas1916

    With decisions and interventions like these, what in the world are GM and Chrysler going to look like in 2012? Democrats in general and Frank in particular have no clue what it takes to operate a business enterprise. At least watching him try might be good for a few laughs.

    These companies will need continuous federal funding to keep operating because they probably won’t be able to produce automobiles that people will voluntarily purchase. ( for a look at what the GM product line might look like in 2012 – and perhaps for a laugh – you can look at: http://firstconservative.com/blog/political-humor/political-humor-general-motors-in-2012 )

    Frank, Obama and Company have never operated a business and Obama Himself has never had a real job where he was responsible for producing a product that people want.

  • Streiff

    to show up and claim there was no political influence here.

    We need more learned discourse from 538.com, Sean Parnell, and all the statistical whiz kids on why this is bogus.

  • NeoKong

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124381255295170405.html

    The Administration promises to wield a light ownership hand, but it’s only a matter of time before Congress starts to micromanage GM’s business judgments. Every decision to close a plant will be second-guessed, much like a military base-closing.

    I thought they would wait at least a week first.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Will-the-GM-bailout-be-Obamas-tipping-point-46675572.html

    During a telephone briefing with reporters the night before Obama’s speech, a senior administration official made the point even more explicitly. “The government will not interfere with or exert control over day-to-day company operations,” the official said. “As a shareholder, the government will limit what it votes on to core governance issues, particularly the selection of the company’s board of directors; major corporate events or transactions.”

    The bottom line: No government interference with the automakers, unless it involves a “fundamental corporate decision,” or the selection of the companies’ boards, or a “major corporate event” or some important transaction. Obama has placed a giant asterisk next to his pledge not to run GM and Chrysler.

    Promise from a Democrat are like are like a canoe made of cardboard..

  • smitch61

    Living in Michigan, this news is a load of crap…..Amazing the political pull these Democrats have heh?

  • 1stRichard

    The GM plant I believe what you are referring to is a parts and distribution center. Sadly manufacturing has left the state. Yes, Massachusetts was the first state in the US to manufacture cars and also had one of the first planed industrial cities in the world but that is all gone. In most every city and town the largest employer is now, if not close, is that city or town. Soon the only thing remaining will be to officially rename the state Taxachusetts the Marxist Welfare State, sickening. With no work I may soon join the Mass exodus of this state.

  • izoneguy

    http://in.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=105766&videoChannel=104

  • Joliphant

    If you look at how NASA or the pentagon distributes contracts for large programs, it always winds up being a map of political power. This is why launch control for Florida is in Texas.

    In this case you can expect any district that has a GM plant closing to start to shout, and why not ? They paid for gm they have a right to expect a payback. Then it will be why doesn’t my district have GM business ?

    Then as GM fails to turn a profit at whatever it will be calling an automobile you can expect legislation to hobble anyone competing.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Barney Frank is my Congressman and I drive a Pontiac…. errr, no comment.

  • gonzo55

    If there’s one person more to blame for this depression than Barney Frank, I don’t know who it is. His continuing to be elected despite being extremely annoying and incompetent is surely proof that Northeastern libs want to force socialism and a radical social agenda upon us all.

  • Mark D

    to learn that GM has any sort of manufacturing in Massachusetts. Really? In Mass.? I can’t fathom that place being a money spinner.
    I worked as an engineer supporting a microelectronics factory (since closed) in suburban Boston 10 years ago. That state, exuse me, “commonwealth,” is just plain hostile to manufacturing.

  • bobojake

    like having dead people vote, intimidating voters, foney registration of voters.
    This is not about bush. THIS IS ABOUT THE FONEY BARNEY FRANK.

  • janis

    with their stats in hand and their contempt for all of us conspiracy freaks. Fancy that.

  • The_Rebel

    increase his margin of victory in the next election. I’m just outside his district, thank God, but my rep is no prize either.

  • izoneguy

    Obama is trying to move launch control to his bedroom.
    That is what he is telling Michelle. She is getting tired of hearing:
    “We have a failure to launch”

  • izoneguy

    http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/06/05/frank_intervention_helps_delay_closing_of_gm_norton_center/