Kausfiles: A mostly political weblog.

David Brooks' Deep Thigh

David Brooks may spend until the end of his days being asked which Republican senator he's referring to in his recent MSNBC confession:

I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here....

He'll be asked at every dinner party he attends for the forseeable future. He'll be asked by his dentist, when he's in the chair. He'll be asked by his editors. I urge Brooks to seek the counsel of Bob Woodward, who managed to keep an even more sought-after name secret for decades. But there is a smaller universe of suspects with this one. It might be hopeless.

P.S.:  I know I have my favorite. ... As a TPM reader notes, it would have to be someone Brooks really didn't want to piss off. ... 1:49 A.M.

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A couple of weeks ago I interviewed Bob Wright about his Evolution of God for KCRW, my local NPR supplier. They're running it today--Tuesday--at 2:30 West Coast time. Says here it's "live stream/on demand/podcast."  Voices were raised. They wanted contentious. ... Update: Less contentious than I remembered! Better to bill it as "thoughtful." That's the ticket. Thoughtful. ... I also think some of the things Bob says toward the end about the tolerant history of Islam might provoke some blowback from the right. ... 1:48 A.M.

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Jeffrey Toobin said something that's not true?  I'm shocked shocked ... [via Olson] ... Update: Olson cites more evidence against Toobin's crowd-pleasing oversimplification. ... 1:47 A.M.

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Mr. LUTZ: [W]here we really messed it up and took our eye off the ball in terms of product was in '70s, '80s and early '90s. And I think we've - in the last five or six years - we've had a radical transformation in the way we approach the product and our goals for products and look at the awards we've gotten. We got car of the year.

SIEGEL: But when you take your eye off the ball for more than 20 years...

Mr. LUTZ: Yeah, well, that was bad. ...

Update: It's also pathetic that Lutz cites the Motor Trend Car of the Year contest. If you follow cars, you know that this is not a respected award. It has a reputation for ...well, see TTAC's cynical flow chart. Over the years it has been won by some mediocre cars (1995 Chrysler Cirrus?), some awful cars (1971 Chevy Vega,1983 Renault Alliance), some loser cars (2002 Ford Thunderbird) and lots of cars Bob Lutz wouldn't be caught dead in (1997 Chevrolet Malibu) including more than ten from what Lutz labels as GM's lost decades. ... [Thanks to Reader D] 1:45 A.M.

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Hill and Bill and Belinda: Gossip You Can Use!

"[Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton has intervened in talks over the future of Opel and Vauxhall at the request of German ministers," reports the London Times. Why is that fascinating to those who read the gossip columns? Because the two bidders for Opel are FIAT of Italy and Magna of Canada. Magna's Executive Vice-Chairman and former CEO is Belinda Stronach (whose father, Frank Stronach, founded the company and is board chairman). Belinda Stronach has been linked in the gossip pages with ... Bill Clinton. Even the Washington Post once cited Canadian reports of their "'close personal and business relationship.'"  She's the one whose mere presence in a tabloid photograph, leaving a restaurant in a group with Bill, caused concern among N.Y. Dem pols, according to the NYT.

Now Bill Clinton's wife will help decide the fate of her firm's bid for Opel.   

I thought Jeffrey Toobin told us sex was never relevant! ... [Hillary's listed as a friend on her (unofficial) MySpace "tribute" page. Will her relationship with Bill hurt her or help her?--ed Don't know. But it's likely to be one or the other!]

Update: It appears that Stronach's firm, Magna, will get Opel (after coming up with "new ideas"). That leaves FIAT the loser bidder, and FIAT's new American partner, the New! Chrysler, looking awfully Choochy:

Opel’s technology would have been a major asset in the Chrysler effort, because of its strength in small to medium size cars that Chrysler’s current lineup lacks. Industry analysts were much bigger supporters of the potential Opel deal for Fiat, viewing the chance of a successful combination with Chrysler as much smaller. [NYT]

12:55 A.M.

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Defining Ruthlessness Down

"As it has been up to this point, the Obama administration's role going forward is to be ruthless and impatient about the restructuring of these once-great American companies so they can emerge from the current recession profitable and competitive." --Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein, defending the Chrysler and GM bailouts. [E.A]

"For our active members these tentative changes mean no loss in your base hourly pay, no reduction in your healthcare and no reduction in pensions.”--UAW memo to GM workers about the concessions made to help the company. Via WSJ. [E.A.]

3:08  A.M.

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