Michael Fumento

If you think I was tough for embedding in Iraq's meanest city a year after having my guts blown out in another part of the country, that was nothing compared to listening to the C-SPAN video of the 2-hour plus Star Chamber interrogation of Toyota Sales CEO James Lentz at the February 23rd. Twice I had to stop the video to pop Xanax.Youse refused that offer we said youse couldn't refuse!

I thought if Rep. Joe Barton, in his interrogation, pronounced Toyota as "Toyotoe" one more time I was going to scream.

Rep. Bobby Rush read aloud a letter about an Avalon accident in the Dallas area that stated, “Police said there was no evidence of any braking, giving rise to the idea that it was an accelerator problem.”

Hello?

And I couldn't believe my ears as Rep. Jerry McNerney essentially openly blackmailed Lentz regarding a plant in his district that had been co-owned by GM and Toyota, but GM pulled out. "You're having a public relations nightmare right now," McNerney told Lentz. "If you work with us to keep that open, it will be a real plus for your public relations issues."

Presumably if that plant doesn't stay open, Lentz will wake up with a horse's head in his bed or at least receive a fish wrapped in newspaper.

You'll hear more about this interrogation get gleanings of it in an upcoming article, but this should be taught for future generations as a textbook case of congressional demagoguery.