Big 3 Autos = Sierra Club for Democrats

The WSJ points out that the root causes of the Big 3's troubles are by the Democrats' own making (sound familiar, Fannie Mae?) and the easiest way to help them is to ease the environmental restrictions that Democrats placed on them.

If Congress wants to ease the immediate burden on Detroit, it could also ease the onerous fleet-mileage standards (CAFE rules) that force the companies to make cars domestically that are unprofitable. A mere tweak would help a lot -- for example, simply allow Detroit to meet CAFE standards by counting the cars it makes at home and abroad. This alone might save Chrysler from bankruptcy. But Congress won't budge on that simple change.

...All of this shows that Democrats don't merely want to save jobs. They want an entirely different American auto industry that serves goals other than selling cars to consumers. The green lobbies have disliked Detroit for decades -- for resisting fleet mileage standards and having the audacity to make SUVs, trucks and other vehicles that people have wanted to buy but that violate modern environmental pieties. For the greens, the bailout is their main chance to remake Detroit according to their dictates.

Of course, why bother correcting the root of the problem when you can throw more free money around? (Free to the people that want to spend it, anyway.)

*Update*
Mitt Romney says that we need to let the companies go through bankruptcy in order to save them.