Game Over

More on Washington’s plan to save Detroit by destroying it:

Amid fresh assembly line layoffs, congressional Democrats and the White House reached for agreement Friday on about $15 billion in bailout loans for the beleaguered auto industry. President George W. Bush warned that at least one of the Big Three carmakers might not survive the current economic crisis.

Several officials said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten spoke by phone. While no details of their conversation were available, it appeared the House’s top Democrat had dropped her opposition to Bush’s insistence that the aid come from a fund set aside for the production of environmentally friendlier cars.

Already the selection of what cars to produce has been politicized — and this is supposed to be an improvement over GM’s decrepit fiefdoms how exactly? And $15 billion? Are they kidding? Besides, it comes with too many strings from Congress, zero of the kind of discipline Detroit would get from a bankruptcy judge.

This is shameful.