Senior Republican Wants Detroit Auto Execs Ousted

Washington DC November 20, 2008; The AIADA newsletter reported that Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, said Wednesday he doesn't believe there will be a turnaround in the troubled U.S. auto industry until its top management is ousted and the manufacturing model sacked.

"I don't think they have immediate plans to change their model, which is a model of failure," Shelby said, a day after the top executives of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler came to Congress to plead for a $25 billion "bridge loan" to avert layoffs and plant closings. Click here to watch those CEOs attempt to win over the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee yesterday.

"I believe their best option would be some type of Chapter 11 bankruptcy," said Shelby. "These leaders have been failures and they need to go."

Rep. Barney Frank disagreed with that, saying choosing the bankruptcy option would like mean abrogation of labor contracts. MSNBC reported that whatever the various arguments about options, Detroit is running out of time. The automakers' top executives returned to Congress yesterday, appearing before a House committee to make the same plea they made Tuesday to the Senate Banking Committee.