Chris Dodd says Wagoner should "move on"
He may have gotten his money, but it looks like General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner didn't make any friends in Washington during the process. Over the weekend, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) remarked on CBS' Face the Nation that the vertically gifted CEO should "move on". He did not specify, however, whether or not Wagoner's resignation would be baked into the $15-17 billion aid package that the House and Senate will vote on this week.
Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee that grilled all three Detroit CEOs last week, and at times during the questioning seemed sympathetic to the plight of each CEO. Nevertheless, more scrutiny has been cast on Detroit's request for government assistance than another other industry, especially the financial industry that seemingly gets tens of billions of dollars from Congress for batting its eyelashes and giving its best come hither look. We know of no financial institution that has sacrificed its CEO at the altar of public appeasement, though Wagoner's record as CEO of GM from 2000 to the present does him no favors.
Meanwhile, President Elect Obama appeared on Meet the Press yesterday and suggested auto executives should lose their jobs if they don't end their "head in the sand" approach to decision making.
[Source: BusinessWeek, Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jake 9:35AM (12/08/2008)
Hey, that sounds great if incompetent Chris Dodd moves on too. At least Wagnoner wants to make GM viable.
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guerro 9:03PM (12/08/2008)
Can anyone tell me why congress should get to decide whether or not a CEO of a public company should stay or go?? Shouldn't the shareholders have more say than a ridiculously stupid politician ?? What do the politicians know about running a company anyway? They should be fired for running the US into the ground way worse than GM or Ford.
Avinash machado 9:38AM (12/08/2008)
Maybe Wagoner could move on into politics and run for the Senate in the next election.
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Dan 1:41PM (12/08/2008)
Dodd got a preferred rate loan under a program for people with great credit whereby the bank makes more money off that loan?
Please. Dodd got a Friend Of Angelo (Mozilo, the Countrywide CEO) rate loan under a program to butter up the Senate Banking Committee and make sure they didn't do anything about the subprime fraud that was making Angelo rich.
bill 9:40AM (12/08/2008)
If anyone should be fired it is the laughably criminal Chris Dodd. He of the sweetheart home loan from CountryWide and the entire mortgage meltdown mess we find us in now.
But Dodd is a Democrat so laws and ethics do not apply.
As for Wagoner, he needs to grow a pair, tell Dodd and the UAW to take a hike, file chapter 11, and try to re-create a viable General Motors Corporation.
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bob bell 9:39AM (12/08/2008)
OK maybe I don't think Rick Waggoner has done such a bang up job either, but for Chris Dodd, noted auto analyst and paragon of virtue (remember Dodd got one of those pesky sub prime loans a few years ago) to call on Waggoner to move on is the height of hypocricy.
Remember Dodd is one of a hundred "consultants" who sit by idly year after year while our Federal government spends itself into oblivion (in fact, he has added some of those infamous "earmarks" to magnify the problem) and who helps appoint and confirm the idiots who run the Federal bureracracy, many of whom fly around the country in tax payer subsidized jets and look down on the chaos of a Hurricane Katrina or who oversee procurement procedures which allow the DOD to live with cost overruns of 300 to 400%!
Waggoneer may be an incompetent: Dodd is a pandering idiot!
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Paul 10:24AM (12/08/2008)
Dodd got a preferred rate loan, FAR different than a sub-prime loan.
Sub-prime loan = for people with terrible credit (why you would loan to them escapes me)
Preferred Rate Loan = for important people with great credit (a group that i understand giving a preferred rate to as they typically with have more valuable houses and you can make more money off of them even at a lower rate)
There are plenty of things to criticize Dodd for, this is not one of them.
Dan 1:56PM (12/08/2008)
Last post went under the wrong subject, still getting used to this new board software.
--
Dodd got a preferred rate loan under a program for people with great credit whereby the bank makes more money off that loan?
Please. Dodd got a Friend Of Angelo (Mozilo, the Countrywide CEO) rate loan under a program to butter up the Senate Banking Committee and make sure they didn't do anything about the subprime fraud that was making Angelo rich.
Beeb 2:53PM (12/08/2008)
Paul-- re "why you would loan to them escapes me":
Here's why: Dodd and Barney Frank told Fannie & Freddy to encourage "sub-prime" loans to those who couldn't afford them as a de facto government social program since a report from the Fed in 2005 had made it clear that the Democrat-created GSEs known as Fannie/Freddy weren't having their desired effect of keeping mortgages low and had no real reason for being, esp. after fraudulent management behavior was revealed.
A nudge-wink from Frank & Dodd and Fannie/Freddy's new mission was to buy all the sub-prime loans they could. Hence the huge move by lenders in 2006 to make worthless loans; they didn't care if they could be repaid or not since they were immediately selling those loans to Fannie/Freddy.
That irresponsible action eventually was the fuel that fired today's credit crisis, which is what is really killing the auto companies. Ironic, no? Wagoner should be the one asking Dodd to resign...
Source:
http://www.q-and-a.org/Program/index.asp?ProgramID=1197
Mikeeee 9:55AM (12/08/2008)
Wagoner would move on if Countrywide will give him VIP treatment like they did Dodd.
Typical liberas. " Do as I say, not as I do".
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Dude 9:45AM (12/08/2008)
This is laughable.
Wagoner should respond, "You first!"
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Dude 9:48AM (12/08/2008)
"Meanwhile, President Elect Obama appeared on Meet the Press yesterday and suggested auto executives should lose their jobs if they don't end their "head in the sand" approach to decision making."
Wouldn't that be the equivalent of voting "Present" Mr. Obama?
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Richard 12:17PM (12/08/2008)
Brilliant!
david 9:49AM (12/08/2008)
Dodd and Bawwwny Fwank are the two most responsible persons for the housing meltdown of which caused the domino's to fall for the rest of the economy. If anyone should go, it's them.
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Richard 12:20PM (12/08/2008)
@ David,
Aww I can say is: "Pwus wun! And I am reawwy sowwy we didn't have David E. Davis come up hewre to tawk to us wast week. Werwe does that man get thowes beautiful cwravats we wearws?
John 9:50AM (12/08/2008)
Why Wagoner? He forced GM "back to basics" to battle "30 years of management mistakes" that left him with little room to maneuver. Shares of GM may have plummeted since 2006, but I believe Kirk Kerkorian pulling out all his shares has something to do with it. If any of the three CEO's should be the sacrificial lamb, it should be Bob Nardelli. Also, if Mullaly was forced to "Move on" in this deal, I really think it would a major road bump in Ford's path to recovery and core business/management changes. Chris Dodd has NO room to talk; he is nothing but a hypocrite.
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Jim 10:08AM (12/08/2008)
"Also, if Mullaly was forced to "Move on" in this deal, I really think it would a major road bump in Ford's path to recovery and core business/management changes."
indeed. The thing people (And those gasbags in D.C.) don't seem to realize is that Mullaly pushed for those "Hard decisions" a couple of years ago, and if it weren't for the current economic conditions kneecapping them they would be OK.
Sadly, just like the average American, our government has the attention span of a guppy and things everything can be done "now now now!"
Frank 11:23AM (12/08/2008)
"If any of the three CEO's should be the sacrificial lamb, it should be Bob Nardelli."
Why? Nardelli has only been there for less that 15 months, and it took at least 3 months for him to "get his feet wet" and get up to speed. It will take at least a year to 18 months to know if both Mullaly and Nardelli are sucessful or not. Rick, well yes he inherited all the baggage from teh previous CEO but he has had years now to turn this around and things were not good for GM before the gas spike and credit meltdown.
Jim 1:24PM (12/08/2008)
Frank:
"Why? Nardelli has only been there for less that 15 months, and it took at least 3 months for him to "get his feet wet" and get up to speed."
'cos like I said above, people have the attention span of a guppy. I doubt anyone even bothers to recall that Chrysler's in such sorry shape due to 10 years under Daimler. And those that do realize that still expected the company to be completely turned around overnight. Nothing but a bunch of impatient ninnies.
happy_penguin 9:51AM (12/08/2008)
Wagoner may be an incompetent ass but Dodd is a complete t*at. But it's always nice to have someone more incompetent than yourself to point a finger. What a d*ckhead.
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