Posted by
Sue on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:40:17 PM
Well, Barney Frank feels that his intervention on behalf of a General Motors center in his district will not lead other lawmakers to do the same thing. That is right Barney thinks this is his idea and he intervened and no one else will do the same.
“I don’t think this will lead to a pattern.” Frank said.
Frank was able to convince Fritz Henderson the new Government Motors CEO to keep a distribution center in Norton, Mass., open for at least another 14 months.
Of course this has caused criticism from those who question whether other lawmakers will ask for favorable treatment GM entities in their states. Of course Obama has repeatedly said that this administration has “no interest” in running GM and that the government will not be running “the shots.”
It is not clear if the administration has told other lawmakers and Frank to “refrain from further politicization of GM business decisions.”
Frank stuck up for his intervention by saying the intervention was “unique in that the Norton center was neither an auto plant nor a dealership.” So, what is it? Hello. Frank also stressed environmental reasons for keeping the Norton center open. “Closing it, he said would have meant parts would have been sent to New England from a distribution center in Philadelphia, putting more trucks on the road and for greater distances.
Frank said other lawmaker might look for deferrals from GM to keep entities open longer, he repeatedly said, “there’s no reason to think Congress needs rules to police lawmakers seeing to trade votes for support for plants or dealerships.” Nope no reason at all. Nothing to see here.