At 9 a.m. EST Friday General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson held a press conference on GM's exit from bankruptcy. As we
detail on The Deal Pipeline (subscription required), incoming chairman Ed Whitacre was on hand as well.
Whitacre's presence is important -- for political as well as business reasons.
When the retired AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) chairman was announced as GM's new chairman in June, we
counted among his qualifications the fact that, judging from his political contributions, he looked like a good Texas Republican. In the GM turnaround, with its potential to be undermined not just by government micromanaging but also by perceptions of partisanship, this strikes us as important. A few weeks ago, there was even talk among some on the right about boycotting GM.
Friday's Wall Street Journal hits this theme with a quote from former Bush adviser Karl Rove, who (we now learn) is a longtime associate of Whitacre. No fan of President Obama, Rove nevertheless has encouraging words about the job Whitacre can do at GM. "He's very tough, which is called for in this situation," he told the WSJ. "He's not going to let things remain as they are ... this was a very astute pick."
Who said bipartisanship is dead? -
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