Bush Aid to Automakers Angers Senate GOP

clipped from thehill.com Tension bubbled Friday among Republicans as GOP senators criticized the Bush administration’s decision to tap the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package to save U.S. automakers. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a lead negotiator who had nearly convinced the United Auto Workers (UAW) to accept sweeping reform of the industry, including lower wages in the near future, said Congress had a chance to return to the bargaining table Friday. Once Democrats and the union heard the White House would cave in to demands to release money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), all incentive to negotiate further vanished. “We would have had a whole lot better chance of agreement if the White House hadn’t said they’re getting ready to put money in,” Corker told a group of reporters after a news conference.

Of course, they're right -- Bush just kicked them in the teeth. If the TARP funding is big enough, they should be able to keep going until next year when more solid aid from the Obama admin. and a dem congress is a dead certainty.

The Senate GOP may be willing to throw the economy down the toilet just to break a union, but Bush doesn't want to be remembered as the president who's action led to an unprecedented wave of unemployment.

Throw a ticking clock, a lame duck session, competing interests, and a president who stopped giving a damn about Republicans some time in November in a pot, mix well, and you've got a party eating itself.