Pelosi and bailing out the car companies

Kimberley Strassel details how Nancy Pelosi has been trying to get the administration to use the money from the $700 billion to help out the car companies even though that is not what the money was meant for.

Democrats have been trying to shuffle money to Detroit since summer, but their timing has been off. The Michigan delegation's big push for auto funds coincided with September's financial crisis. With Washington in a panic, voters howling over $700 billion for banks, and an election in the offing, the leadership decided a Detroit bailout was one hot potato too many.

This decision was made easier by the fact that the Big Three's balance sheets have made even sympathetic Washington spenders worry about throwing money at a bankruptcy. Democrats decided it would be better to direct the funds in a way that allowed them to later deny fault.

The plan? Make it the Bush administration's responsibility to give Detroit cash -- namely by claiming after the event that the $700 billion rescue package for financial institutions was in fact a rescue package for auto makers.

Paulson isn't playing their game, so they'll have to pass their own sort of bill and take responsibility for what will most likely be a terribly unpopular move. When they control the entire government next year, they won't be able to shuffle this off on a disliked Bush administration. It will be their baby and we'll see if they want to take the bullet for giving federal money to bail out mismanaged companies just so they can save the union workers who helped to elect them in the first place.