LEMMINGS ON WHEELS

By Eugene Robinson Tuesday, December 16, 2008   Despite the popular belief, lemmings don't really hurl themselves off cliffs to reduce their numbers. That sort of behavior is seen only among Republicans in the Senate, who gave us a demonstration when they torpedoed legislation to bail out the auto industry. To state the obvious, no one is eager to use hard-earned taxpayer dollars to bail out the bozos of Detroit. Yes, I know that American cars are better than they used to be, and, yes, I know that the much-heralded Chevy Volt is on the way. But our domestic auto industry has been thoroughly out-thought and out-hustled by the foreign competition, and no infusion of public funds is likely to change this pattern. It may be that General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are lumbering, Jurassic beasts that deserve their looming extinction. But only a free-market fundamentalist, a lunatic or a Senate Republican -- perhaps that's redundant -- would conclude that now is the moment to hasten Detroit's demise.  Click here for full article.   My comment: Republicans do have a peculiar way of rebuffing Dubya, the titular leader of their party. They can always justify the reasons why they are against Bush, but the main reason is truly to get into the limelight when everything is going dim their way. Right or wrong, they must surface in the news/media or they will be buried by the Obama steamroller. It matters not whether the auto industry gets gobbled up by foreign competition, the republicans must come up with opposing ideas if only to show that they are still relevant as a party. This is a far cry from the McCain slogan of COUNTRY FIRST.