Chrysler LLC dealers slated to lose their franchises took the stand Thursday in the automaker's bankruptcy protection case. The news prompted conspiracy theorists to dust off their claims of political partisanship.
A popular meme floated on various blogs including Clusterstock and Zero Hedge is that the Obama administration pressured Chrysler to favor dealerships owned by friends of the Clintons. The blogs note that a chain co-owned by Mack McLarty, former Clinton
administration chief of staff, and Democratic heavyweight Robert Johnson lost
no dealerships. And although the Obama administration attempted to quell this rumor last week when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that "we don't make those decisions. ... Chrysler makes those decisions," they have bubbled up again and likely will continue to fester.
What do you think? Did the administration play politics? - Matthew Wurtzel
Cripes, what dopiness. Even Neil Cavuto this afternoon was skeptical of an Arkansas Chrysler dealer spinning conspiracy theories. And as anyone who has spent any time with car dealers knows, any random subset of them will overwhelmingly be GOP supporters/contributors. Someone actually crunched a few numbers to that effect here:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/05/news-flash-car-dealers-are-republicans.html