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Mindless Opposition of Reid & Pelosi - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 11/21/08
— Friday, November 21, 2008 —
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Q Dana, are you saying Congress should have stayed in session and acted to authorize the 136 loans right now, and not waited a couple of weeks?

MS. PERINO: Well, it seems to me that it's sort of senseless. You had a bipartisan path forward to help the automakers, as long as they were willing to show viability through the 136 program, that would not relax environmental standards. And nothing would bar the Congress from putting more money towards helping companies retool their plants if they wanted to in the future.

So I would -- I just think that it was mindless opposition to anything that we would propose, and they cut off their nose to spite their face. So now we'll have to wait and see if they even come back on December 8th. But one thing that is very curious is how in the world are 535 members of Congress going to determine viability of a company? It's mind-boggling. They can't even get together to pass a Mother's Day resolution. So we are a little bit perplexed as to what they plan to do when they get back on the 8th and how they plan to do it.

We agree that the viability portion of the language is absolutely critical. But we want these automakers to succeed. We don't want to see the huge numbers of unemployment that would result from a possible insolvency. And these companies have to be willing to make hard decisions to change for the long run.

Q And those who are engaged in mindless opposition would be Reid, Pelosi, those people?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think it's obvious. I don't have to name them -- they know who they are; you know who they are. They're the people who are opposing our plan, and the people who decided to go home without actually getting anything done. I mean, this is like do-nothing Congress part two, same song as they sang last time. And as I said, we will do what we can to try to put forward innovative policies like we had with this 136 program. It had a bipartisan path to succeed. And they wouldn't even allow for a vote. What kind of democracy is that?

So we're a little bit perplexed. But we'll see what the companies come up with, and if they can meet the Democrats' so-called test. Okay.


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