Former Car Czar Rattner Has Written a Kiss-and-Tell Book

This could be interesting. The Huntington Post has seen a copy of former car czar Steve Rattner's new book and there could be some discomfort at the White House over it's contents. Reportedly, the Obama administration was out to get the car companies and playing politics.

FOX News reported:

Former Obama administration car czar Steven Rattner is coming out with a new book that depicts him swashbuckling through the financial crisis and also shows Obama as “out to get” the car companies and the administration making political decisions about how to deal with bankrupt automakers GM and Chrysler.

The Huffington Post got a leaked copy and there is plenty there that will play into this years’ elections – especially since this is the first kiss-and-tell book from the Obama team.

Here is a tidbit to hold you until the book is released.

-Rattner describes presidential political adviser David Axelrod coming to car meetings armed with poll data to support the takeover and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel identify Congressmen in whose districts large Chrysler facilities were located.

Obama's “Green Czar” is an admitted Communist with arrest record

In little reported 'slap in the face' move, President Obama has put an admitted communist and former criminal in charge of creating 'green jobs.'

From New Zeal:

A few short years ago Anthony (Van) Jones was a Bay Area radical agitator-a committed Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, waging war on the police and capitalist system.

According to the White House Blog March :

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley announced yesterday that Van Jones – an early green jobs visionary -- will start Monday as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at CEQ:

According to the East Bay Express, Jones said in 2005,

"I met all these young radical people of color - I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of... I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary...I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th..By August, I was a communist."

Is an appointment for Bill Ayers next?

Congressman Ted Poe Accuses Obama Auto Team of Closing GOP Dealerships (video)

Only GM Dealers That Donated To Republicans Were Shut Down! Congressman Ted Poe (video)


The ratio of donations for dealers that were shuttered was 42 to 1, GOP to Democrat.


Additionally, WND analyzes the closings:

But WND reviewed the list of 789 closing franchises and databases of political donors and found that of dealership majority owners making contributions in the November 2008 election, less than 10 percent gifted to Democrats while 90 percent gave substantial sums to Republican candidates.

The listed franchise owners
contributed at least $450,000 to Republican presidential candidates and the GOP, while only $7,970 was donated to Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign and $2,200 was given to Sen. John Edwards' campaign.

Obama received a combined total of only $450 in donations – $250 from dealer Jane Baldock in Wenatchee, Wash., and $200 from Waco, Texas, dealer Jeffrey Hunter.

Many of the majority owners who donated to Republican campaigns last year also contributed additional thousands to George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2004 and to help elect GOP representatives.

Story on partisan dealership closings grows

Many are claiming this story does not have merit because most dealers tend to be Republican. This seems plausible at first glance because most dealership owners are older, upper middle class businessmen. A first look at dealerships by Gateway Pundit indicates owners donate more to the GOP by a ratio of 76% to 24%. That does not explain why almost no Democratic supporter had their dealership closed. Many actually gained dealerships or had their competition eliminated.
Here are the story basics from Examiner.com:

Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.The basic issue raised here is this: How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan learned from a House colleague that his Venice, Florida, dealership is on the hit list. Buchanan also has a Nissan franchise paired with the Chrysler facility in Venice.
"It's an outrage. It's not about me. I'm going to be fine," said Buchanan, the dealership's majority owner. "You're talking over 100,000 jobs. We're supposed to be in the business of creating jobs, not killing jobs," Buchanan told News 10, a local Florida television station.

Buchanan, who succeeded former Rep. Katharine Harris in 2006, reportedly learned of his dealership's termination from Rep.Candace Miller, R-MI. Buchanan owns a total of 23 dealerships in Florida and North Carolina.

Also fueling the controversy is the fact the RLJ-McCarty-Landers chain of Arkansas and Missouri dealerships aren't being closed, but many of their local competitors are being eliminated. Go here for a detailed look at this situation. McClarty is the former Clinton senior aide. The "J" is Robert Johnson, founder of the Black Entertainment Television, a heavy Democratic contributor.


A lawyer representing a group of Chrysler dealers who are on the hit list deposed senior Chrysler executives and later told Reuters that he believes the closings have been forced on the company by the White House.

"It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn't Chrysler's decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President's automotive task force," said attorney Leonard Bellavia.

Adding to this story is the revelation Obama's Car Czar, Steven Rattner, is married to Maureen White, the former National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party.

More confirmation Car Czar Threatened Chrysler Bondholders

There have been several reports of Chrysler bondholders being threatened by the Obama administration. Here is another report. I don't know what to make of this, but here it is.
Econo-blogger Finem Respice:

Today, I have the distinctly unpleasant distinction of being on the receiving end of exactly this sort of recollection. That is, a bit of dialogue so genuinely awful that- were it not from a source I consider impeccable, and unimpeachable- I would not dare to credit at all. Unfortunately, I must do precisely this, and personally believe it to be totally, frightfully accurate...

...I take no pleasure in relaying it, instead hoping that someone more directly in the business of running such matters down and printing them will carefully document it and- if true- expose it, or- if not- discredit it quickly and finally. This (as yet unproven) yarn goes exactly like this:

Confronting the head of a non-TARP fund holding Chrysler debt and unwilling to release it for any sum less than that to which it was legally entitled without compelling cause, this country's "Car Czar" berated the manager of said fund with an outburst of prose substantially resembling this:

Who the f*** do you think you're dealing with?

We'll have the IRS audit your fund.

Every one of your employees. Your investors.

Then we will have the Securities and Exchange Commission rip through your books looking for anything and everything and nothing we find to destroy you with.

It is a tale literally so outlandish and difficult to picture that, in these circumstances and given the source, it rings absolutely true. Consider all this in a larger context where... You see Non-TARP entities claiming that:

...we have been systematically precluded from engaging in direct discussions or negotiations with the government; instead, we have been forced to communicate through an obviously conflicted intermediary: a group of banks that have received billions of TARP funds.

...not to mention the fact that the salary, bonus and "stress test" results for TARP banks are all within Treasury's control...