OT: Automotive politics.

then left right in the middle, leaving GM et al holding the bag while the new guys settled in?

He probably would have done this even had McCain won the election.

-Nathan

"... in order to give the outgoing administration enough time to exit and for the next administration to settle in before the house of cards in Detroit came tumbling down."

I saw the interview. The gist of Cheney's remarks was that the Bush administration wanted to provide bridge financing to enable GM to limp along a couple of months into the next administration. This would allow the Obama team time to figure out how they wanted to handle the situation. There were several alternatives, according to Cheney:

They could just let bankruptcy happen, they could work a deal similar to the one the Obama administration came up with, the government could simply take over GM, and other possibilities. Whatever decision they made, the decision would have severely limited the options of the next administration.

So they chose to make no decision - to kick the can down the road - and let the Obama team choose. Had the Bush administration chosen an option, say bankruptcy, and the Obama folks decided that another choice, say bailout, was preferable, the Obama folks would have to un-do the Bush decision first. The Bush people thought this would unnecessarily hamper Obama's decisions.

Okay. +1. Punchline of the week. We have a winner!

Yup, pretty much the same idea. Passing the buck is a tried and true way of doing business. It still sucks though.