“This week Southern Republicans had a chance to go to bat for foreign automakers while simultaneously busting a union… The fiercest opposition to the loan proposal — and nearly a third of the 35 votes against ending debate on the deal — came from Southern Republicans, and the ringleaders of the opposition all come from states with a major foreign auto presence. Not coincidentally, nearly all of those states — except Kentucky — are also “right-to-work” states, which means no union contracts for most of the employees at the foreign plants. The Detroit bailout fell victim to a nasty confluence of home-state economic interests and anti-union sentiment among Republicans.”

via Salon News.

Related:

• Rachel Maddow: GOP’s Platform is Now to Reduce the Wages of American Workers (Crooks and Liars)
• Carl Levin questions Richard Shelby’s ethics on the Auto rescue plan (Crooks and Liars)
• New GOP Memo entitled Action Alert about the Auto Bail Out makes clear that it’s all about “Union Busting” (Crooks and Liars)