Car czar wants Toyota taken down

Ron Bloom, Obama's car czar, has surfaced, buried at the end of a U.S. News and World Report blog entry. Columnist Peter Roff reports that Bloom may have been the catalyzing force behind the Toyota recall.

Whatever the reality concerning the performance of the Toyota vehicles, the investigations are themselves riddled with conflicts of interest. Thanks to President Barack Obama's multibillion-dollar bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, the agencies looking into the safety of the Toyota fleet are part of the same U.S. government that owns large chucks of the same GM and Chrysler that have been losing market share to Toyota and the other Japanese automakers for decades.

Sources who follow the issue suggest that Ron Bloom, the former White House car czar who is now a senior counselor on manufacturing issues, is at least partly to blame for keeping the spotlight focused on Toyota's troubles.

Bloom is an unelected czar charged with overseeing the reconstruction of America's domestic auto industry. The government initially put pressure on Toyota to recall their cars after it was revealed many Toyota models were suddenly accelerating, injuring and killing drivers. Toyota had the highest rate of sudden acceleration problems, although GM and Chrysler had plenty of incidents as well.

Bloom previously worked for the SEIU. Toyota, meanwhile, has refused to unionize its workers. Bloom is also charged with remaking the American auto industry, while Toyota is based in Japan. Bloom has previously said he agrees with mass murderer Mao Tse-tung that "Political power largely comes from the end of a gun." He has also said, "In today’s world the blather about free trade, free markets and the joys of competition is nothing but pablum for the suckers."