A SUGGESTION FROM MICKEY KAUS: Shouldn’t Republicans hold hearings on the general threat of Putinlike corporatism?

A SUGGESTION FROM MICKEY KAUS: Shouldn’t Republicans hold hearings on the general threat of Putin…

"Shouldn’t Republicans hold hearings on the general threat of Putin-like corporatism—i.e., an insidious alliance between big government and favored corporate and labor interests?

a) They could call GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to testify and embarrass him about the myriad ways in which his slightly creepy role as CEO and presidential adviser might allow him to benefit his company and squash competitors;

b) They could grill the various regulators who might be tempted to favor the auto manufacturers that the government bailed out (and which, in GM’s case, it still owns about a third of).
Maybe some GM competitors would even be brave enough to testify.
(Exhibit No. 23: Will GM and Chrysler claim all the remaining billions of “green” retooling loan money from Obama’s Department of Energy? Entrepreneurial startups need not apply?)

c) They could question whether these bureaucrats and others are also doing favors for other Obama constituencies, like labor unions, or Google;

d) They’d appear transpartisan–this is an issue where left and right populists unite.
Do they love corporate-government alliances at Daily Kos?
It’s also one of the legitimate worries at the heart of TeaPartyism.

e) Hearings might help."