ANOTHER SUPPORTER OF THE "THEY SHOULD HAVE DROVE TO WASHINGTON D.C." IDEA

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Truth With Speedzzter previously suggested that the Detroit 3 CEOs should have lead a "Washington Dream Cruise" convoy new products together with a few thousand of soon-to-be-unemployed workers to the Senate "bailout" committee "turkey shoot" this week.

Instead they failed to grasp an impending public relations debacle and flew in their "private jet/flying conference rooms" at great expense to weakly ask for more money.

Now others are suggesting similar plans. CNBC's Mike Huckman is one of them:

"The "Detroit 3" (I can't call them the "Big 3" anymore) CEOs knew they were sitting ducks, that Congress would be loaded for bear and ready to haul these guys out to the woodshed. So, what did they do? They each flew in corporate jets to DC. I get that bigtime CEOs are busy and that there can be security concerns. But at a time when the American automakers are burning through cash at an alarming rate, laying people off left and right and asking the feds for billions of dollars to help them survive they or their handlers couldn't see the benefit of traveling on a budget?"

"For example, imagine the media bang General Motors could have gotten if Rick Wagoner had driven himself to Washington in one of the new Chevy Volt electric hybrids?

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Certainly the Volt would have been an out-of-the box grandstand play. But what about a whole fleet of Detroit's latest world-class products. It could have been a moment as grand as the dramatic ending of Francis Ford Coppola's "Tucker: The Man and His Dream," albeit on a much larger and more blue-collar scale.

Sure, it would have cost a lot more in lost production and expenses than $20,000-$60,000 in private jet time. It would have been a logistical nightmare to organized on such short notice.

But America couldn't have ignored the streets of D.C. filled (and shut down) with American automobiles and trucks driven by hard-working fellow Americans who are poised to lose their jobs and homes if Congress fails to act. Nor could it have ignored a "Hot Rod Power Tour" phalanx of new, quality products that should make all fair-minded consumers forget about the dark ages of the 1970s and early 1980s.

They could have even added into the mix a few of the celebrity professional racers who depend on the Detroit 3 for their livelihoods. Why not even ask Jay Leno to ride along? The Detroit 3 had many popular public opinion leaders that they failed to tap in their darkest hour.

Such a display would have demonstrated the urgency of the situation and the need for immediate action better than mere words from a pack of $20,000,000-per-year CEOs ever could.

Even the threat of a "Drive On Washington" would have shaken Congress to the core.

It would have been a road trip for the ages.

It would have been a real-life, legal-speed "Two-Lane Blacktop" moment on a much grander scale. (Remember, the "Two-Lane Blacktop" allegory involved mailing the titles to the race cars of G.T.O. and The Driver to Washington, D.C. -- a metaphor for the impending loss of automotive freedom symbolized in the film)

Alas, the Detroit 3 CEOs played into virtually every negative stereotype the general public holds against them. And they lost . . . for now.