republicans' attempt to kill off detroit

I've said the Senate GOP are playing anti-union politics in consistently opposing the Detroit auto assistance deal. Eugene Robinson has it right:

... Senate Republicans... killed the bailout measure by demanding that the United Auto Workers agree to sharp, almost immediate cuts in wages and benefits.

Funny, I don't recall a cry from Senate Republicans for salary caps on the stockbrokers whose jobs were saved in the Wall Street bailout. Nor, to my knowledge, have they demanded that white-collar workers in the auto companies take pay cuts. I do recall lectures from some Republicans in the Senate about how inadvisable it is for government to meddle in the workings of the free market. In my book, renegotiating labor contracts qualifies as meddling.

Silly Robinson! Everybody knows only the Democrats meddle. Republicans' motives are always ideologically pure, and they are simply incapable of interfering in the market, so it must not be so! Just like they agree that the government should keep out of our private lives, unless your wife is in an irreversible coma and you want to remover her from the machine, in which case it again becomes the duty of the Republicans to meddle I mean, make sure the right thing is done.