Oh Come On, Ralph!

So here's Ralph Nader -- traditionally Public Enemy Number One of the American auto industry -- griping about the dealership and factory closings by Chrysler and General Motors. He contends that "Congress has ceded oversight of the automakers' restructuring to a task force of presidential advisers." But... does Congress have any more business overseeing automakers' restructuring than the White House does? Or overseeing anything else about the auto industry, for that matter? Notice that the basic premise -- that it's the government's business to run American business -- is never questioned; it just a matter of who in government ought to do it, and I suppose that Nader prefers Congress because, unlike advisers, they are elected by the people and are thus, supposedly, more subject to "accountability". That's a nice idealistic concept, but when's the last time any Congressman did anything in the interests of the American people in general? It's always about them and their constituents, cronies, and pet rocks -- and that applies to the bailouts and economic "stimulation" as well. If the aggregate interests of the citizenry had been considered, we wouldn't be in the economic fix we're in; what has happened is a product of the dominance of special interests over many years.