Dems turn up rhetoric on auto bailout

Democrats across the country are blasting Republicans who
voted against a bailout for American automakers last night, in some cases using
rhetoric ordinarily reserved for only the most heated debates.

“It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly,
behavior of these U.S. senators to cause this country to go from a recession
into a depression,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said during a radio
interview Friday morning. “It is such an unbelievable stab at workers across
the country.”

{mosads}“Republicans are recklessly playing games with the
nation’s economy just so they can take shots against unionized workers,” House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) stated. “It is inconceivable to me that
Republicans have rejected a short-term loan to the auto industry as negotiated
by our Republican president, all in the name of a philosophical hostility for
unionized workers.”

Republican senators “who call themselves Americans want
to destroy American workers who helped build America’s working class,” trumpets
a headline in a release issued by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Republicans
“irresponsible,” while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
said his GOP colleagues had put 3 million jobs at risk.

The harsh language, especially from Granholm, is
reminiscent of certain Republican attacks on Democrats. Most recently,
Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann found herself in hot water when she
suggested that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama had “anti-American
views.”

Still, Republicans who voted against the bailout measure
are in line with the majority of Americans, according to a new Fox News/Opinion
Dynamics poll. The survey shows 58 percent of Americans disapprove of an
automaker bailout, including 52 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of
Republicans. Just 37 percent approve of the bailout.

Just over one in three respondents told pollsters they
believed American car companies would survive only if they received a loan.
Thirty-one percent predicted the auto companies would be able to survive on
their own, while one in four said the companies were doomed regardless of
whether they received the bailout.

Half of voters say it is not likely that automakers will
eventually pay back the money they borrow, while 48 percent say payback is
likely.

The poll was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday among 900
registered voters around the country for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3
percent.