Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds

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I’M NOT SURPRISED:  Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Washington to Beg for Funds….
Published 11/19/2008 by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit
I’M NOT SURPRISED:  Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Washington to Beg for Funds.

Appearances
Published 11/19/2008 at This Blog Is Full Of Crap
The CEOs of the Big 3 automakers flew private jets to DC to beg Congress for bailout money. If it's all about appearances, these three have failed. Beggars don't arrive in horse-drawn carriages.

Flying Private Jets to Beg for a Bailout
Published 11/19/2008 by Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ
Flying Private Jets to Beg for a Bailout The CEOs of GM, Chrysler, and Ford travelled in cushy comfort to ask Congress for our money. All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone. "We want to continue the vital role we've played for Americans for the past 100 years, but we can't do it alone," Wagoner told the ...

Corporate begging in style
Published 11/19/2008 by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air » Top Picks
Corporate begging in style posted at 9:30 am on November 19, 2008 by Ed Morrissey Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly If industry leaders need to convince Congress that their plight is so desperate that they need $25 billion in taxpayer cash to rescue them, what mode of transportation would best underscore that crisis?  Flying coach?  Traveling by train?  Horse and buggy?  ABC News reports that the Big Three automakers sent their CEOs to Washington DC by private jet instead: The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to ...

Bad Business Decisions Plague Automakers
Published 11/19/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (lawhawk) at A Blog For All
When the automakers start acting as though there is a crisis with their business operations perhaps I'll consider their claims to need billions in taxpayer bailouts more seriously. The thing is, the automakers don't think things are so serious that they can't continue sending their executives to beg before Congress with their fleets of private jets . There is no way that a bailout will save the automakers from themselves. Bad business decisions have put them in this precarious situation. UAW union contracts that make production costs nearly double that of other cars produced ...

Memo To Corporate Beggars: When Going To Washington To Ask For A Bailout Don’t Take Your Private Jet
Published 11/19/2008 at Say Anything
Jeez... All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM’s $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone. “We want to continue the vital role we’ve played for Americans for the past 100 years, but we can’t do it alone,” Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee. If we give them a bailout they’re going to keep flying around in their private jets. ...

Annals Of Stupid Corporate PR Tricks
Published 11/19/2008 at Marc Ambinder
The adjective applies. This morning, Ford's chief executive officer, Alan Mulally, arrived on Capitol Hill driving a new Ford Fusion Hybrid. The press knew this was going to happen because Ford's PR machine sent word to daybook editors yesterday. One could forgive the company for this photo-op; after all, Detroit is very anxious to prove that it gets why people are so frustrated, and it gets why fuel efficient cars are its future. And the Ford Fusion is a pretty good car. If the company's ethos is changing, then maybe the photo op is even intellectually honest. No one expects Mulally to drive from Detroit (or Seattle, where he ...

Private Jets
Published 11/19/2008 by myglesias at Matthew Yglesias
... You would think that if car company executives wanted to take private jets to DC they could at least share a single private jet rather than going in three separate private jets: ...

Marketing
Published 11/19/2008 by lex at Neptunus Lex
Talk about “not getting it“: The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy. If you’re going to go to the American people - during a recession, mind - with your hat in your hand, it’s probably best to fly coach.

Private jets
Published 11/19/2008 by Steve Benen at Political Animal
PRIVATE JETS.... Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, understands the importance of symbolic gestures and public relations. Yesterday, for example, when he arrived on Capitol Hill, hat in hand, hoping to convince lawmakers to help bail out American auto manufacturers, he arrived in a new Ford Fusion Hybrid ...

Rep. Ackerman: Auto Execs’ Private Jet Travel Like Guy At ‘The Soup Kitchen In High Hat And Tuxedo’
Published 11/19/2008 by Ali Frick at Think Progress
... However, as ABC news reported last night, all three executives flew private jets to Washington, DC, for yesterday’s and today’s hearings: ...

Throw the Bums Out (of Detroit)
Published 11/19/2008 by Jonathan Stein at MotherJones.com | MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary
Let's say you're three auto industry executives summoned to Washington explain why you deserve billions of dollars in taxpayer money. You and your cronies have mismanaged your industry for years but luckily for you and unluckily for the country, too many parts of the economy rely on your continued existence. You watched AIG executives get strafed in the media for throwing lavish corporate retreats (with spa trips!) just after taking bailout funds. You know the public is hyper-sensitive to signs of waste, because the middle class is struggling to get by and it's their money that you're asking for. So what do you do? You take ...

The Big Three Automaker CEOs Need A P.R. Firm
Published 11/19/2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief at The Moderate Voice
It turns out they flew private jets to travel to Washington to plead to Congress for (bailout) funds. Not smart. No matter what their arguments, this is the kind of symbolism that will hurt their case. Cartoon by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri

Would It Have Killed Them to Fly Commercial?
Published 11/19/2008 by Karen Tumulty at Swampland - TIME.com
And while they are at it, sell the jets. This from ABC News: The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough. All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally ...

Buddy, Can You Spare A …….. Gulfstream?
Published 11/19/2008 by Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard
... Hoo, boy. If this isn’t the most arrogant act of pleading poverty ever, it’s got to be very close. The three CEOs of the big three US automakers all took the same way of getting to Washington to beg for public money. Private jets. The each took their own private, company owned jet to come to Washington and plead for taxpayers to save their companies . Apparently, they couldn’t even think this through enough to car Gulfstream pool. The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the ...

Romney: I've Got An Idea...Let's Try Capitalism!
Published 11/20/2008 at Slublog
Mitt votes no on the auto industry bailout. If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.As DrewM points ...

Detroit Story Descends To Perp Level
Published 11/20/2008 by Michael Shaw at BAGnewsNotes
... Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public -- article + video (ABC News) ...

The Day the Big Three Lost Their Bailout
Published 11/20/2008 by Mary Katharine Ham at Weekly Standard Blog
... ABC's evening newscast went with the story last night, going so far as to look up coinciding flights on Expedia, from Detroit to Dulles. There were 12 of them, starting at about $200. ...

Psst...Obama...It's Called "Capitalism"
Published 11/20/2008 by Slublog at Ace of Spades HQ
Psst...Obama...It's Called "Capitalism" A Dartmouth economist has a message for the president-elect. The first global cost of a bailout could be less foreign direct investment (FDI) coming into the United States. On Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama asked, "What does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?" Well, it looks a lot like the automotive industry run by "foreign" car companies that insource jobs into the U.S. In 2006 these foreign auto makers (multinational auto or auto-parts companies that are headquartered outside of the U.S.) employed 402,800 Americans. The average annual compensation for these employees was $63,538. At the ...

General Motors Learns a Valuable Lesson
Published 11/22/2008 by Simon Scowl at Deceiver.com
Mainly, if your executives are criticized for taking a private jet to Washington to beg taxpayers to bail out your ineptly run business, you should pretend to make a concession that really isn’t one, and pretend you’re not really making it: General Motors said today that it is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service because the planes are not being used enough. The top three executives at GM, however, will continue to use the private luxurious jets for all of their business and personal travel, despite a flurry of criticism over the perk following an ABC News report this ...

Look at me way up high, Suddenly here am I, I'm flying
Published 11/22/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (SteveAudio) at SteveAudio
Beethoven wrote some beautiful music while totally deaf. Talent and drive, plus hard work. Some people, however, can hear just fine and yet are completely tone-deaf. Like GM's Rick Wagoner: General Motors said today that it is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service because the planes are not being used enough. The top three executives at GM, however, will continue to use the private luxurious jets for all of their business and personal travel, despite a flurry of criticism over the perk following an ABC News report this week. An ABC News investigation revealed that the top three automakers ...

Pam Atherton: Memo to Automakers Wagoner, Mulally & Nardelli: Fire Your PR People
Published 11/24/2008 by Pam Atherton at Politics on HuffingtonPost.com
... According to Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee from ABC news, "Wagoner's private jet trip to Washington cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 roundtrip. In comparison, seats on Northwest Airlines flight 2364 from Detroit to Washington were going online for $288 coach and $837 first class." ...

Three Automakers Not Giving up Private Jets
Published 11/27/2008 by Politicol News Staff (noreply@blogger.com) at Politicol News
The audacity of the Big 3 showing up for a 30 billion dollar handout due to their own mistakes is beyond understanding by most people. These CEO's arrives separately in their own private Leer jets costing approximately $ 20,000.00 round trip for each person to arrive in Washington and the reason give was for their own security. There have been no recent Al Qaeda threats on automaker CEO's although some stockholders may want to take a punch at them. Brian Ross of ABC News did some investigating on the perks of failure especially at GM. These automakers do not understand that people are losing their ...

Detroit Three clownwatch: Now they're driving to Washington
Published 12/2/2008 by TigerHawk (noreply@blogger.com) at TigerHawk
Fool : Ford Motor Co. says CEO Alan Mulally will travel by car when he makes his return trip to Washington, D.C., to seek $25 billion in government loans. Two weeks ago, Alan Mulally's time was so valuable that he had to fly a private jet from Detroit to Washington to plead for federal bailout money for Ford. Now his time is so worthless that he can burn 20 hours driving , or at least riding, in an automobile to and fro Washington. Well, Alan, which is it? Is every moment of your day added value for Ford's stockholders creditors, or can they really afford for you to waste a third of your working week on highways in Ohio and Pennsylvania? ...

Jim Wallis: CEO Pay Cuts and Hybrid Road Trips by the Big Three
Published 12/4/2008 by Jim Wallis at Politics on HuffingtonPost.com
After being hit hard in the press over taking private jets to ask for tax payers money, there are some promising signs of change from Detroit. The "Big Three" CEOs have agreed to work for a dollar in the coming year in response to broad criticism of their compensation while asking for government funds. This change includes the clever stunt of driving back to D.C. in hybrid cars and leaving their private jets at home. This kind of shift is small in the grand scheme of our current crisis, but it points in the right direction. As Brian McLaren wrote yesterday on our blog, we need "an ethic of ...

Phil Bronstein: Nice work, Gov. Blagojevich. Really.
Published 27 days ago by Phil Bronstein at Politics on HuffingtonPost.com
Two big holiday season cheers to floppy-haired Ilinois governor Rod Blagojevich for giving us faith again. Just when we thought we couldn't squeeze out one more drop of righteous indignation. Just when continuing big executive financial sector bonuses and automaker private jet rides ...

Could Auto Bailout Bill Hurt Aviation?
Published 25 days ago by Kate Barrett at Political Radar
Previous | Main Could Auto Bailout Bill Hurt Aviation? December 11, 2008 5:49 PM ABC News' Lisa Stark Reports: Even as Congress struggles to agree on a bailout bill to try to save jobs in the automobile industry, another industry is warning the proposals, as written, could hurt their industry. Supporters of business aviation have written to lawmakers opposing the legislation because it may include a provision that discourages, if not forbids, auto executives from using private planes for business. The CEOs of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford created a firestorm of anger and controversy when they each flew private company jets to ...