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What part of N-O doesn’t the Bush administration understand?

Two headlines this morning:

Majority of Public Opposes Auto Rescue

Poll Finds Most Blame Industry for Problems, Believe Failure Won’t Hurt Economy

Administration says it’s still working on bailout

We will pay a heavy price for the obstinacy of a lame duck.

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Meantime, more poor decision-making by the auto biz. Autoblog’s Michael Harley reports:

Chrysler’s “sales bank,” the loathed program in which the automaker continues to manufacture and stock cars regardless of demand, is supposedly back through the end of the year. Chrysler LLC co-President Jim Press delivered the news to dealers on Friday during a nationally telecast conference call when he mentioned that district managers will be calling dealers trying to offload 12,000 units of unassigned inventory.

Dealers left the call gasping for air, recalled the summer of 2006, when Chrysler had nearly 650,000 units in the sales bank. At the time, there was a 91-day supply of vehicles. Today, with about 400,000 units in inventory, the automaker is sitting on a 117-day supply.

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Louder!

White House switchboard: 202.456.1414.

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Update 4:20pm Eastern. Our Senate GOP mavericks have sent a letter to President Bush opposing the TARP-to-UAW bailout:

December 16, 2008

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing to urge you not to use Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to bail out the automobile industry. Last week, the Senate rejected a legislative bailout after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union refused to agree to changes necessary to help the Big Three automakers become competitive. According to news accounts, your Administration is considering providing TARP funds to the automakers without requiring the UAW and the automakers to make sufficient reforms. Absent such restructuring, we do not believe any amount of money will succeed in saving these companies.

Sincerely,

Jim DeMint

Jeff Sessions

John Ensign

Tom Coburn

John Cornyn

Michael Enzi

Saxby Chambliss