Another Limbaugh Fantasy

The online edition of the Long Island, N.Y. newspaper Newsday has reported on a couple of dealerships in Long Island which are among the 789 Chrsyler dealerships slated to be closed by the end of the year. One of them, Jim Anderer, says that his dealership employs 50 people and makes more than $1 million a year, and was the guest of Neil Cavuto on GOP today. Rush Limbaugh on May 19 played a portion of the interview, in which Anderer stated

Well, they'll say they want to combine all the stores, or they say that the dealers cost the manufacturer money to keep in business. And all of these might be true in some cases, but in the dealers that they cut, there seems to be no cohesive way that they did it. There was no process that you could put your finger on and say, "Hey, we cut 25% of the lowest performing dealers." They didn't do that, okay? Nobody will give us a real clear explanation or formula that they came up with.

And then Limbaugh's comments, before he started rambling about credit cards:

Now, why do you think that might be? I mean, I could only hazard a guess here. Do you think that the Obama administration -- "working with" Chrysler, heh, heh, heh; working with the automobile manufacturers, working with the dealers -- they're just randomly taking a look at a list and saying, "Eh, we don't need this one in Long Island, chop it. We don't need that one in Portland, chop it. We don't need that one in San Antonio, chop it"? Do you think they're doing that, or do you think maybe...? I just throw this out there as a possibility. Do you think maybe Obama and his administration are targeting dealerships that happen to be run and owned by Republicans? I don't know this.

And Rush makes it clear whom he blames: the evil federal government whose despot, Barack Obama, even may be "targeting dalerships .... run and owned by Republicans." Continuing the fantasy, Limbaugh says in the next paragraph "Well, you joke about it being about penalizing success, but what the hell... That would be the theme of this administration: 'We're going to penalize success.'"

This would be a surprise to Chrsyler, which, according to Newsday

said the dealerships were chosen based on various factors, including sales volume and their proximity to other Chrysler dealers.

The decision, as far as anyone- including Rush Limbaugh- knows, was made by Chrysler Corporation itself based on factors actors in the free enterprise system (for which Rush is consumed with love) normally consider. The "structured bankruptcy" and agreement with Fiat may not be enough to save Chrsyler, but the company was in sufficiently dire straits that it accepted $4 billion in loans from the federal government. President Obama's strategy may not be optimum but if Rush Limbaugh has had a better idea to save the faltering automobile company, he has not expressed it. And before concocting, and propagating by way of his microphone, a conspiratorial scenario, he ought to treat seriously the deterioration of a great American company, related businessess, and tremendous job loss.