Dick Cheney, of all people, lobbied for the GM bailout: "If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever." And so they will. In the immortal words of Langston Hughes, their hind brains don't work; but like Shelby, the Hoover of Alabama,  many of them  don't just have ideological motives to be stupid: Alabama has Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda plants.

But they're not just corrupt; they don't stay bought. The Detroit firms have consistently given more to the Republicans too.

With thanks to Digby.

More: James Surowiecki has more. GM's wage bill is 10% of its costs, and this is a tweak in that amount; if the loan was sound after breaking the UAW contract, it should be equally sound without breaking it. So not only is this wage control, it's wage control without economic purpose.

But IOKIYAR.