'And Tell Me, Mr. CEO, Did You Buckle Your Seat Belt?'

Video

Washington Sketch: Congress Drives Home the Point

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank sketches the return of "The Big Three" to Capitol Hill.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

"I drove with a colleague," he explained. "We split it up about 50-50. We drove down yesterday, and I'm going to drive back myself Friday or Saturday."

And Wagoner didn't even mention that he stopped for lunch at Quiznos at a Pennsylvania rest stop.

It seemed clear that the feds would have to do something to keep the automakers from failing, a development that Mark Zandi, co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, told the committee would be "cataclysmic." But the public remains adamantly opposed to a bailout. So the lawmakers settled on a solution: subject the executives to a ritual humiliation before giving them the money.

"If you made this presentation to get a bank loan, I suspect that any sensible banker would summarily dismiss your request," Shelby lectured them.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) demanded to know: "Are you all committed truly -- and you'll have to be committed, because as far as I'm concerned, there are going to have to be conditions placed -- to the type of fundamental transformational change that is necessary for you to survive?"

And Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was so testy that he mixed up his geography. "If we allocate this money and two weeks from now you guys announce expansion of a manufacturing plant in Michigan, I'm going to be unhappy," he warned.

"In Mexico," Wagoner assisted.

"In Mexico," Tester repeated. "What'd I say? I said Michigan, didn't I?"

The executives were elaborate in their displays of contrition. Wagoner, in his prepared testimony, allowed that "last month's hearings were difficult for us, but we learned a lot." Ford's Mulally, in turn, said he had "thought a great deal about the concerns that you expressed. I want you to know I heard your message loud and clear."

The trio tripped over themselves to be agreeable, answering the senators with cheerful calls of "Yes, sir" and "Fine, sir" and "Senator, absolutely" and "Sir, if we are fortunate enough to get the funding."

It must have been difficult for the once-proud CEOs to hold their tongues in this manner -- and to sit obediently as lawmakers who had enough trouble running the country dispensed advice on running their businesses.

"You all made buses at one point, didn't you?" Dodd asked Wagoner.