State of Oklahoma Jobs

John Dingell is Washington’s latest man-in-the-middle. The tough man isexpected to face the beleaguered auto industry to remedy the nation’s needfor tougher fuel economy mandates. Dingell is placed in a difficult situationwhere he is expected to exude impartiality notwithstanding the Democrat’saffiliation with the auto industry in the past five decades.

“This is going to be the most difficult damned problem I’ve faced sinceI’ve been in the Congress,” Dingell, the chairman of the influential Energyand Commerce Committee, said in an interview. “I’m trying to bring theRepublicans in and now the Democrats are denouncing me. But that’s the waylegislating should be done.”

Dingell, also called Big John, is currently the longest serving member ofthe House of Representatives, with a tenure longer than the entire lifetimes of121 of his current colleagues. In 2006 midterm elections, he again becamechairman of the ECC, a panel he previously chaired.

Pushing Dingell from the left are environmentalists, a Senate majority andsome House Democrats. There also is Speaker Nancy Pelosi backing California’spush to regulate greenhouse gases, and numerous lawmakers from both parties. Onthe other side, there is Detroit’s Big Three – the General Motors Corp., theFord Motor Co., and the Chrysler Group – whose leaders have bet that Dingellcould single-handedly keep the fuel economy chase at bay.

“There is a lot of hostility – it’s just there,” Dingell said now, echoingother members of the Michigan delegation. “There are some people trying to getme out of this chair because they think I’m too close to the industry.” Whatqualifies being ‘too close’? Could it be the circumstances surrounding it?Or the zealous defense of his state’s biggest employers?

Dingell, the 80-year-old lawmaker, readily tells the top executives of GM,Ford and Chrysler how poorly they have made their case on Capitol Hill. Atpresent, he is expected to do more. They have to make the automakers part ofthe solution to the increasing concerns about global warming and foreign oildependence.

“They have not done the job of cultivating this place like they shouldhave,” Dingell said of the automakers’ Washington lobbying, a complaint sharedby other members of Michigan’s congressional delegation. “They have not done agood job of analyzing this place or put the right resources down here.”

However skilled or incompetent Detroit’s Washington lobbying may be,spending the better part of the past couple of years slashing jobs, closingplants, selling operations and appearing to teeter on the edge of bankruptcydoes not help. Nor does closing plants in states like Georgia, and Virginia andMinnesota win allies, either. Oklahoma, Maryland and New Jersey are part of thedreaded list as well. “Withdrawal from six states means that 12 U.S. senatorsand probably twice that many representatives no longer have reason to worryabout the companies’ competitive situation,” noted JP Morgan in a 2006report.

With the Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. and theHyundai Motor Co. flooding places like Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi and Texas,Detroit’s allies in Washington are becoming extinct. Meanwhile, most lawmakersare insisting for a drastic change in fuel economy mandates. It may necessitateenhancement of auto equipment such as the newly released Volvo XC90 parts.

“The old arguments are less effective,” said a ranking lobbyist with one ofthe Detroit automakers. “We almost should have a 24-hour school or lease carsoutside the Capitol. They’re very ignorant on what we do.” Who is to blame?While the parties are pointing fingers, critics say that it is better to pushefforts to attain one great ‘viable’ solution to remedy the industry’sdilemma.