When the dismal history of the last few months of Auto Industry Woes is written, a special page needs to be written for Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn), who single-handedly killed the bipartisan financial aid bill that a Republican president worked out with the House of Representatives, quite possibly forcing GM into bankruptcy.

Toyota and Nissan have plants in Tennessee and Chatanooga is on track for construction of a major new automotive manufacturing facility. Heck, even Setco Automotive from India is there. Was it coincidence that a Tennessee Senator dealt the death blow to the hard work the House of Representatives and the White House put into saving Detroit? Well, Saturn has a plant there too, so nothing on the surface of this makes sense. Then again, a lot of this does not make sense.

There's a car dealer named Jim Jackson whose letter to the editor of a local newspaper made big time news pointing out all the upside of American car makers and the big misconception that existed about their quality both inside and outside of the halls of Congress, among many other strong points. He rightly points out that what Detroit needs is only a tiny fraction of what Wall Street got with no strings attached and how Detroit is also a victim of the financial mess that all of us are in. He's right.

Meanwhile Senator Corker and his Republican cohorts freely admit that they want to see GM go into bankruptcy. In his address to the Senate, the transcript of which is proudly posted on the Senator's website, when it came to the possibility of GM's bankruptcy, he said "We have a lot of Republicans that would like to see that happen" including himself. Well that might be fine for Republicans, but it won't help the millions of workers who would find themselves in the unemployment and welfare lines if the only major manufacturing industry left in the US collapses.

As Jim Jackson wondered, perhaps these senators drive too many Mercedes cars and haven't "driven a Ford lately?"

Detroit needs financial help. It doesn't need Republican Senators like Corker deriding them and prodding them further into trouble.

It is beyond reason to think that "Corker & the Gang" can let Wall Street crooks get billions and billions of dollars with no oversight, and then think they know that bankruptcy is best for Detroit. I'm sure there's a lot of voters that may eventually be standing in welfare lines and thinking differently. Some of them might even end up being in Tennessee.