Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/shields-and-brooks-mull-auto-rescue-blagojevich-scandal Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Political news took a dramatic turn this week with the corruption charges levied against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Mark Shields and David Brooks mull the Blagojevich story and the debate over aid for automakers. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: OK, Mark, pick up on that. Where does this thing go? How do you — listening to what you've just heard, what Gettelfinger said, what happened last night in the Senate, what's going — and what the administration may or may not do now on its own?MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: Well, I think the administration is going to act, Jim. JIM LEHRER: They're going to act? MARK SHIELDS: I don't think there's any question about it. I think, for good reasons and for historical reasons, they don't want the collapse and the disappearance of the American automobile industry and the manufacturing base of the country to occur on George Bush's watch.So they made a good-faith effort, the White House did. They went to the mat. They did everything they could. They're running out of political clout. They weren't able to deliver Republicans on the Hill. Josh Bolten worked hard. The entire Republican… JIM LEHRER: White House chief of staff. MARK SHIELDS: White House chief of staff. It was a good-faith, authentic effort on their part. And they failed in the Senate. They could not move Republican votes. And it was… JIM LEHRER: So it's up to them now to… MARK SHIELDS: And so I think they've made the decision that it's not going to happen on their watch. JIM LEHRER: You see the same result coming?DAVID BROOKS, columnist, New York Times: Yes. The White House has certainly made the decision… JIM LEHRER: I mean, the White House? DAVID BROOKS: … it's not going to happen on their watch. They're going to give the money.I thought the Corker plan, Bob Corker's plan, was what a restructuring looked like. Everybody talks about restructuring, gives lip service to the idea. Who actually has a plan for restructuring? Corker actually had a plan.And it looked like the sort of conventional plan that you get in a Chapter 11 or in a restructuring. The people who own the debt, they take some cuts. The union take cuts, maybe a $10-an-hour cut, or some sort of cut. And so there's pain spread around.But I think, as Ingrassia said, why should the unions or why should anybody make the concessions if they're going to get the money for free the next day from the White House? So they knew they were going to get the money for free the next day from the White House. So why should they sign on to the Corker plan?And so I think the bottom line is the American people or the political process has decided we can't let the auto industry fail.So if that's your underlying rule, how do you force restructuring? How do you ever force restructuring? Do we just keep giving $14 billion here, $14 billion there, $14 billion there? Who's going to force the restructure?