Rahm Emanuel: "Fuck the UAW"
Rahm Emanuel, former Democratic congressman and President Obama's chief of staff, gave the UAW the Gettelfinger during the GM and Chrysler rescue debate, according to former auto czar Steve Rattner's new book. This could get messy. Especially because there's more.
Huffington Post says Rattner's book "The Overhaul" will offer some unstinting takes on Obama's inner circle during the time of the bailouts.
Of course, this isn't the first time Emanuel's found himself in hot water over dropping an F-bomb on his political bedmates. But it's also not the only startling quote we've found in Rattner's book.
In addition to Emanuel's expression of the usually never-stated, but readily-shared opinion by many Democratic politicians of the usually Democratic-leaning union, the other early highlights include:
- Emanuel's spout about the UAW came during early debate on whether the administration should even try to rescue GM and Chrysler.
— In his first post-election talk with advisors about GM and Chrysler, Obama asked "Why can't they make a Corolla?"
— Rattner describes Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne as "one of our biggest headaches." He also describes a showdown between Marchionne and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger; when Marchionne lectured about the need for autoworkers to accept a "culture of poverty" instead of a "culture of entitlement," Gettelfinger fired back: "Why don't you come and sit with me and tell a seventy-five-year-old widow that she can't have surgery and that you killed her husband?"
— And Rattner defends his role in "ChoochGate," the scandal that forced him to resign from the Obama administration, despite other reports suggesting there's a lot of life left in the probe.