Thursday, May 7, 2009

Chrysler. the UAW, Obama and the Obvious and Unreported Conflict of Interest

In George Will’s latest column, titled ‘Sunbeams From Cucumbers”
He starts with a reference to Gulliver’s Travels: “Gulliver's travels took him to the Academy of Lagado, where "professors contrive new rules and methods" for everything: "One man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last forever without repairing. All the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think fit to choose, and increase a hundredfold more than they do at present." There was, however, the "inconvenience" that "none of these projects" had yet come to fruition and "the whole country lies miserably waste." But "instead of being discouraged," people were "fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes," which included "extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers."“
Will then relates this to the Chrysler reorganization negotiations, “At the Academy of Obama, professors and others devise plans for extracting a new and improved automobile industry from a semi-sort-of-bankruptcy arrangement that -- if it survives judicial scrutiny; that is not certain -- will give the United Auto Workers 39 percent of General Motors, with the government owning 50 percent. During future contract negotiations, will the union's adversary be an administration that the union helped to put in power?””
I found a link to this piece at dKos. The kossacks sole comment on this was this argumentatively brilliant gem, “George Will is still an idiot.” I wonder if Will felt that his position was totally destroyed by this little flash of hate. The only suitable rejoinder from Will would be, “They’re all idiots at dKos,” which would just return everything to status quo ante.
But the fact remains that Obama accepted at least $5 million from the UAW and now he claims to representing my interests in negotiations with the union. Why does nobody see the obvious conflict of interest? A good lawyer would avoid any situation where there was even the appearance of a conflict of interest. But how would we know if Obama is a good lawyer? He has firmly refused the public and the press any access to documentation he has any say over relating to his bar membership. But one sign of his lawyerly qualities is his complete willingness to allow the appearance of a conflict of interest.

2 comments:

Joe said...

Wait 'til the UAW discovers that a corporation is actually SUPPOSED to make a profit. It will drive (pardon the pun) them mad.

Chris M. said...

They might not ever see it as an issue. Why do you need to make a profit when donating a few million to Obama For President motivates him to give you billions in taxpayer dollars? They probably think they can play that game forever.