Waxman will help get things rolling

The successful coup by Rep. Henry Waxman over Rep. John Dingell to head the House Energy and Commerce Committee is seen as a serious blow to the auto industry. Quite the contrary. It is, in fact, the best thing that could have happened to the industry.

For years — perhaps decades — Dingell protected the auto industry from governmental efforts to install safety items in vehicles and get higher gas mileage. Those are exactly the things we’ve seen from Toyota, Honda, Subaru and other foreign manufacturers who are doing far better today than domestic carmakers.

Since industry executives have been too shortsighted to make the necessary changes to stay competitive, congressional “enemies” are desperately need to force them to do the things that will keep them competitive. Industry executives — and even labor unions, which could have and should have forced changes — are to blame for the current miserable state of the auto industry.

Henry Waxman is exactly what’s needed to shake this moribund, visionless industry out of its self-inflicted doldrums.

Bruce Barnbaum