WASHINGTON — Judging from the lobbying lineup, legislation to bail out the auto industry should be assured of passage.
But it isn’t, a case of conventional wisdom seemingly turned on its head as one administration gives way to another and an expiring Congress limps toward the exits.
On one side: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, the United Autoworkers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the nation’s car dealers and auto suppliers. Competing interests in so many battles of the past — all now are pleading with Congress to act.
“A partial or total failure of a major auto manufacturer would generate a massive economic ripple effect across the entire economy,” Ford dealers wrote members of Congress recently as they launched an appeal to Democrats and Republicans alike.
“If Chrysler quits sending me cars, I have to close my doors,” Jim Arrigo, owner of a dealership in West Palm Beach, Fla., said Monday before he set off on a lobbying expedition of his own.
On the other side: Nary a special interest has stepped forward.
Not a single one of the well-connected lobbyists so prominent in Washington legend, so far as anyone can discern or will acknowledge.
Not Toyota. Not Honda, whose spokesman, Ed Cohen, says a healthy Detroit “would help sustain the supplier base” that feeds all manufacturers.
Not the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, whose president, Mike Stanton, says merely that whatever lawmakers do for the domestic companies, they should take care not to disadvantage the foreign competition.
Congressional Democrats are drafting legislation to approve loans for the Big Three automakers as well as industry suppliers, making use of some of the $700 billion that was part of a bailout intended for the financial industry.
The White House and many congressional Republicans are opposed.
“Democrats are choosing a path that would only lead to partisan gridlock,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
