So The Detroit Free Press just published an article "Former Car Czar: GM, Chrysler Were on the Brink of Disaster". You remember this guy Steve Rattner, right? He was the Car Czar appointed by Obama who had to resign his post due to some more pressing matters. Something about the SEC investigating him and his Quadrangle Group hedge fund about allegedly bribing folks to get investments from the New York State Pension Fund. Yeah, that guy. Yes, the guy who happens to be married to the lady who runs fundraising for the Democratic Party. And who shut down a bunch of dealerships who allegedly gave no money to the Obama campaign during the election. Which would kinda be easy to look up being married to the lady who accounts for all that, right?
Well, Rattner found time between building his legal defense team to talk to Fortune Magazine about his short stint as Car Czar. He says lots of stuff like "we were determined not to fail". Assuming I guess that he hasn't? And this one I really liked: "I needed the gentle e-mail push that came from Larry Summers (the National Economic Council chief who we love to remind everyone got bounced out of the presidency of Harvard for saying women don't have the mental capacity to be good at math and science. This makes him his generation's Jimmy the Greek, but he's still got a real big job), "Life will work out for you either way Steve, though America will be better off if you do this." Who was counseling Summers on those words? Had to be somebody from Hollywood. Now I'm gonna puke.
Anyway, Rattner spends a lot of time blasting Rick Wagoner, former GM CEO, and I guess that's rightly so. With little barbs like this, "Rick set the tone of 'friendly arrogance' that seemed to permeate the organization." I love that. Im going to set a tone for this blog now with "friendly arrogance". Absolutely perfect. I wonder how things were run over at the now investigated Quadrangle Group when Rattner was in charge? Non-friendly arrogance? What an assclown.
The best part though was when Rattner told Wagoner he was going to swim with the fishes (technical term) and Wagoner asked a great question, "So are you gonna fire Ron Gettlefinger (the head of the UAW) too?" Rattner was apparently "startled" by the question and said he had no authority to do that. Um, guy you are the Car Czar, I think you had the power to do whatever you wanted. But I'll tell you what, I bet if he fired the head of the UAW his old lady (technical term) would count a lot less money in the coffers of the Democratic Party. Hope and change everyone. Hey Steve, good luck with the SEC. Hope "life works out for you either way", like Larry "Jimmy the Greek" Summers said.
"I bet if he fired the head of the UAW his old lady (technical term) would count a lot less money in the coffers of the Democratic Party. Hope and change everyone."
Priceless!
Posted by: shneer | October 21, 2009 at 08:13 PM