Unbelievable leap in logic and unwarranted certainty that the stats "show" this. If you believe it, then you're someone who takes the salesman's word that paying for undercoating is a smart move.

When GM's bankruptcy does happen, the U.S. government could own about 70 percent of the automaker, but nobody from the government will move into the boardroom, even for a brief period, according to reports. More from Bloomberg:

At least Rick Wagoner won't still be there either. While GM was sputtering toward its total breakdown, Wagoner garnered a 167 percent raise and a $1.8 million bonus. And then he was allowed to keep his huge pension package with no cuts even though he "retired early," as the company spun news of his exit last month.

Compare that with the way laid-off employees of the Tribune Co. were denied severance when they were laid off shortly before the big Chicago-based media conglomerate filed for bankruptcy this past December.

Anyway, back to GM: Thankfully, news outlets are no longer buying the bull that Wagoner "retired." As Bloomberg notes:

GM's workers, on the other hand, have had no choice but accept huge cuts during the bankruptcy process, and the UAW will wind up, in return, with an estimated 17.5 percent of a company sharply reduced in size and still faced with continuing and massive layoffs.

The GOP's Benedict Arnold is suggesting compromises on a union-organizing bill that business interests strongly oppose.

As the Wall Street Journal noted over the weekend in a story whose headline, "Specter Suggests Changes to Union Bill," may earn him a few points from organized labor:

In a broader sense, maybe Specter wants to tap into union resentment that must be at all-time post-WWII high now that Detroit's Big Three are cutting jobs and running.

In Europe, the global financial crisis has sparked massive protests, many of them led by unionized workers who have taken to the streets a hundred thousand at the time, especially in France. The U.S. hasn't yet seen anything close to that from an organized-labor sector whose various limbs have been methodically broken by Capitol Hill and the White House for decades.

Democrats who are hopeful about their new guy Specter might want to recall that the Pennsylvania senator, as the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, harshly questioned Alberto Gonzales in January 2005 after George W. Bush nominated him for attorney general. But Specter limited questioning of Gonzales to one day only, and as I noted at the time: