Star One Smart Blog's

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say they were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person described the administration as the most shocking “end justifies the means” group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama was “the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger.” Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

Here you go. Obama is working to create the more perfect union of State and Corporate power, in this case by using the tools of fear and the threats of fear and retaliation. Remember Obama's earlier threat to CEO's, “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

I think the pitchforks would be more American than this example of brownshirt fascism. Not that they are yet completely out of consideration...

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h/t Jeff Goldstein. Also linked as a PW update, this from finem respice (a financial blogger) who details a confrontation between one of Chrysler's secured lenders and Obama "Car Czar" Steven Rattner...

By way of reminder, on May 2, 2009 I published this:

This (as yet unproven) yarn goes exactly like this:

Confronting the head of a non-TARP fund holding Chrysler debt and unwilling to release it for any sum less than that to which it was legally entitled without compelling cause, this country's "Car Czar" berated the manager of said fund with an outburst of prose substantially resembling this:

Who the fuck do you think you're dealing with? We'll have the IRS audit your fund. Every one of your employees. Your investors. Then we will have the Securities and Exchange Commission rip through your books looking for anything and everything and nothing we find to destroy you with.

This is what, 115 or so days in? All we can do is point and laugh.

Or cry.

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