Yesterday’s Toyota hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee was a desperate attempt to keep the Toyota issue in the headlines, and to provide flanking support for Waxman’s proposed Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The ghosts in the machine are still at large …
Toyota’s Jim Lentz testified as we said he would testify: Despite an exhaustive analysis of the electronics, no gremlins were found. Lentz said that Exponent “are testing everything that could possibly create unintended acceleration.” He added that Toyota has never discovered any evidence that electronics could be at the center of a problem.
That wasn’t good enough for Waxman who thundered that the results of Toyota’s “examination raise serious questions. Toyota has repeatedly told the public it has conducted extensive testing for electronic defects. We can find no basis for these assertions.” Waxman couldn’t produce a ghost either.
According to the rules of jurisprudence, one cannot be forced to supply evidence that does not exist.
Toyota received unexpected support from David Strickland, head of NHTSA, who told the hearing that Toyota’s remedies for the recall appear to be working. According to Reuters, Strickland “also said that an agency-led investigation of Toyota electronics is moving forward with the help of space agency experts from NASA and the Justice Department, work that will be subject to scientific peer review in coming months.” Translation: No ghost found so far, and none expected in the near future.
Republican Marsha Blackburn castigated committee Democrats for jumping to premature conclusions. She reported that some of her constituents in Tennessee are concerned that members of the committee are grandstanding in an “attempt to vilify a corporation.”
Another day in the nation’s capital.
This administration has a crisis addiction.
The need for new crises to quickly stoke fear/stifle debate/pass legislation is accelerating.
The high from each new crisis is not as intense or lasting as the prior ones.
Every administration has a crisis addiction. This isn’t even restricted to government, or even to management.
This isn’t really new.
Somebody took a big bite out of that ghost.
Somebody’s missing a tooth :-)
I Didn’t notice that! Must have been one loose tooth! :)
(Insert comment from EE purporting it’s something beyond operator error here.)
As Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste …”
Gotta as much power and government take out of this false witch hunt as possible.
I was going to make a smart ass comment about “ghosts in the machine” but I realize that this is more like congressional “rage against the machine.” But this whole thing is starting to feel like deus ex machina.
Now I have Machine Head.
Highway Star anyone?
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/deep+purple/highway+star_20038723.html
It’s like, who do I trust – a Japanese company with decades of engineering excellence and decent work ethics – or a bunch of lowlifes in DC? Hmm….
Please quit demeaning us lowlifes. We don’t want to be lumped in with those in D.C.
That quote by Obama’s Brain (aka Rahm) is their lode star.
Add in the propensity to declare “the debate is over” whilst branding the opposition as “the party of no” thus presenting the false choice of doing it their way or doing nothing.
Rep. Waxman doesn’t work for the Obama Administration. He is a member of Congress – a completely separate branch of government from the presidency.
Obviously, the zeal for crisis-fueled action isn’t limited to the Executive Branch. We needn’t wait for the President’s signature on the final bill(with Waxman grinning at his side) to give either branch more credit for who crisis mongers the best.
Six words for all of you crisis watchers out there: Saddam Hussein Weapons of Mass Destruction
The separation of powers was under over-estimated.