While the $3 billion “Cash for Clunkers” blockbuster is over, Congress is not finished with Detroit.

No one is talking about a “Return of Clunker” or “Son of Clunker” sequel, but it still looks as if car companies will renew their part in the congressional agenda even as another humongous production — healthcare — threatens to swallow the Capitol whole.

A priority for Democrats everywhere is to push the benefits of economic stimulus and pound the podium on job creation. Thursday, the focus is on the future of manufacturing in the economically hard-hit Midwest — a battleground in any election scenario.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will travel to Michigan to discuss legislation working its way through the chamber that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to help spur development of advanced technology vehicles - like better hybrids and all-electric cars.

A fellow Democrat who is the driving force behind the bill, Representative Gary Peters, will join Hoyer and auto and supplier execs at a late-afternoon news conference in Troy. Peters’ district includes facilities operated by Chrysler and General Motors — both of which have cut tens of thousands of jobs and are trying to find their way after bankruptcy.

The Obama administration and fellow Democrats in Congress have pushed for billions in battery development and other projects this year to jump-start a new generation of fuel efficient vehicles and plant seeds for a “green” economy in Michigan, Ohio and other states where traditional manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (crushed vehicles to be shipped to the shredder in Detroit)

Millions of Americans could be staring at blank TV screens tomorrow, when broadcasters switch to digital signals.

The U.S. government has spent years preparing for the switch, which aims to free up airwaves for broadband and enhanced emergency communications.

The change-over will only affect those who get their TV over the air, rather than through cable or satellite connections.

But many consumers probably still haven’t gotten a converter box which will allow them to watch the new digital signals with their rabbit-ear antennas.

That means they’ll miss out on the frothy mix of news and entertainment (newsertainment?) of NBC’s “Today Show,” where this morning Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin declared she’s “absolutely not necessarily” the future of the Republican Party.

In case you’re wondering, Palin’s still steamed at talk show host David Letterman, who made sexual jokes about her daughter a few nights back.

“It was a degrading comment about a young woman and I would hope people really start rising up and saying it’s not acceptable,” Palin said.

In Washington, the CEOs of General Motors and Chrysler appear before Congress to explain the process of closing dealerships — not a popular move with lawmakers who have taken millions in campaign contributions from car sellers.

President Barack Obama meets Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House at 3:30.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (Palin joins former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and wife Judith Nathan at a Yankees game, June 7)

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Within minutes of President Barack Obama’s arrival in Saudi Arabia today, a recording by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was played on Al Jazeera television. U.S. television networks showed Air Force One landing in Riyadh and the first images of Obama greeting Saudi King Abdullah, the audio recording from bin Laden took aim. The militant leader accused the Obama administration of “planting seeds for hatred and revenge.”

It was a rough beginning to what could be a challenging visit to the Middle East and Europe by Obama. He spends tonight at the Saudi monarch’s farm, then flies to Cairo tomorrow for a much-previewed address to the Muslim world. He then travels to Germany and finally to France to commemorate D-Day, returning to Washington on Saturday.

There’s a full cast of characters testifying today on Capitol Hill. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke appears before the House Budget Committee on challenges facing the economy. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu talks to a panel of the House Appropriations Committee. And executives from GM and Chrysler testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on protecting auto dealers and consumers after the closure of hundreds of car dealerships at both companies.

At the White House, Michelle Obama has invited Nancy Reagan to lunch. The former first lady is in town for the unveiling of a statue of her late husband, Ronald Reagan, at the U.S. Capitol.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Arrival in Riyadh)

Even though it was expected, it was still a jolt: GM declared bankruptcy this morning, the third-largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and the biggest ever in U.S. manufacturing.

Unthinkable a decade ago, now General Motors is yet another casualty of the cratered U.S. economy, with taxpayers putting up $30 billion for a 60 percent stake in the company. The GM filing followed just hours after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of virtually all of automaker Chrysler’s assets to a group led by Italy’s Fiat SpA.

Within minutes of the filing, the headlines were rocketing around the Web:
The Washington Post: “Filing Marks the End of Financial Independence for Industrial Icon”
The New York Times: “A Risky Bet to Save an Icon of American Capitalism”
The Drudge Report led its page with a photo of the GM logo under a U.S. flag, headlined: “Government Motors.”

It wasn’t a total blue Monday for the U.S. economy, though, as consumer spending eased and personal income rose in April, the largest increase in almost a year.

President Barack Obama, fresh from a slightly controversial “date night” in New York City over the weekend, will be talking about the automotive industry at the White House around midday, before an afternoon visit to the National Naval Medical Center. The Senate returns from recess today, with the House still out.

Moving back to work after a gorgeous weekend in the Washington DC area, the morning television shows led with the disappearance of an Air France passenger jet over the Atlantic on its way from Brazil to Paris. There was condemnation of the fatal shooting of Dr. George Tiller, one of very few U.S. physicians who performed late-term abortions, who was gunned down at his church on Sunday. And there was also the inevitable post-mortem of the “Britain’s Got Talent” contest result on Saturday, in which sudden media star Susan Boyle sang well but not well enough to ace out Diversity, the winning dance troupe.

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Photo credit: Photographer: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (’Buy American’ sign, in support of Detroit’s auto industry, is seen in the back of an auto scrap yard in Detroit, Michigan May 18, 2009.)

Washington is always full of conspiracy theories –  one of the latest surrounds the decision to close hundreds of Chrysler dealerships following the automaker’s slide into bankruptcy.

Conservatives want to know whether dealerships with Republican ties were targeted by the Obama administration.

Some are seizing on a Reuters article. In it, a lawyer who represents some of the terminated dealers said after a deposition with Chrysler President Jim Press that the automaker did not make the decision.

“It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers,” said lawyer Leonard Bellavia. “It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the president’s automotive task force.”

But there’s more.
Conservative blogger Doug Ross said he discovered that most of the dealerships to be shuttered had given campaign funds almost exclusively to Republicans and very little to Democrats.

However, as with all conspiracy theories, there is the denial, both from Chrysler and the Obama administration.

Chrysler said in the Reuters article that it made the decisions based on location, customer satisfaction and sales potential. The company also noted that almost half of the targeted dealerships sell other brands of cars and most rely on used vehicle sales for their business.

The White House denied suggestions that the Autos Task Force was involved in deciding which dealerships would be closed and expanded that denial to include production plants.

“The president’s task force on autos did not pick individual dealerships,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said during Thursday’s daily briefing in Washington. “It isn’t involved in picking what plants may or may not be closed.”

Asked if there was any concern about the possibility of politics tainting the decisions, Gibbs issued a broad denial.

“Let me reiterate that we don’t make those decisions,” he said. “Chrysler makes those decisions. So I’m sure you can send Chrysler the address of the blog that you refer to.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (A Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership in suburban Washington, D.C.)

President Barack Obama is now America’s car salesman.

Obama made his sales pitch on Monday as he laid out White House plans for restructuring the struggling auto giants General Motors and Chrysler. Buy a car, he said, and you might qualify for a tax deduction.

“The IRS is launching a campaign to alert consumers of a new tax benefit for auto purchases made between February 16th and the end of this year — if you buy a car anytime this year, you may be able to deduct the cost of any sales and excise taxes. And this provision could save families hundreds of dollars and lead to as many as 100,000 new car sales,” Obama said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs followed up on this theme a bit at his daily briefing saying Obama “absolutely” would prefer for Americans to buy U.S.-made cars.

“I don’t want to turn this into an advertisement,” he said, but then noted that the Chevy Malibu was the 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year while Buick was tied for first in a recent dependability study.

And Gibbs said he used to drive a Jeep and loved it. (He and Obama both own Ford Escape hybrids, though the president has a gas-guzzling, armored limousine to ferry him around while in office.)

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama announces restructuring plans for GM and Chrysler.)

President Barack Obama gives his verdict on auto industry restructuring plans at 11 a.m.

Apparently GM and Chrysler, both seeking government money, did not pass with flying colors. White House forced GM chief Rick Wagoner out and wants Chrysler to work out a partnership with Italy’s Fiat — could that spawn a PT Cruiser Panda?

Lots of chatter on the ousting of Wagoner. Two main questions being raised — why was the White House tougher on automakers than bankers on this front and is it the proper role of government to depose the head of a private company?

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm told NBC’s “Today” show that it was clear that Wagoner was a “sacrificial lamb.”

Don’t drink and drive. Beer wholesalers and brewers holding a conference in Washington this week, wonder what’s on tap… 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (GM’s Wagoner wipes eye during meeting)

Mortgages gone bad, auto industry seeking an add, and a chimpanzee gone mad starting off the day.

President Barack Obama out in Arizona to outline a housing bailout plan to offer help on distressed mortgages at 12:15 p.m. Washington time. The plan commits up to $275 billion to support housing, including through government subsidies to mortgage lenders to encourage lower payments for borrowers.

More negative economic data. New U.S. housing starts and permits dropped to record lows in January. Housing starts fell 16.8 percent to an annual rate of 466,000 units and new building permits fell 4.8 percent to 521,000 units.

The White House had been trying to tamp down expectations after last week’s rollout of a proposal to help the banking industry by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was greeted with a stock market drop on criticism it lacked detail.

The sagging automobile industry saga continues with an administration task force to review Chrysler and GM restructuring plans in order to get another $22 billion in bailout money. GM offered to scrap the Saturn brand while Chrysler said it would cut the P.T. Cruiser, Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen.

NBC’s “Today” show interviewed the owner of the 200-pound chimpanzee killed by police after it nearly killed a visiting friend. Sandra Herold had given her pet Travis, whom she treated like a son, tea and anti-anxiety drugs before his rampage.

She said the chimpanzee could drive and took off with the car a couple of times. “I’ll miss him for the rest of my life.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/staff photographer (billboard for foreclosure assistance in California in January)

On the day that the government gives itself $787 billion to hand out, turns out there’s nobody in Washington to print it up and hand it out.

After a long Presidents’ Day weekend, President Barack Obama will load the 1,000-page stimulus bill onto Air Force One today and fly it to Denver to sign it into law.

Congress has adjourned for the week after passing the bill on Friday, so lawmakers are likely back home taking credit for — or distancing themselves from — the record-setting spending package.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ditched town as well, on her first foreign trip. She’s in Japan today, before continuing on to Indonesia, South Korea and China.

Automakers hope that the $787 billion isn’t the end of the story. General Motors and Chrysler will submit their restructuring plans to the government today with the hopes of securing additional billions in government aid.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Republican Minority Leader John Boehner and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor look on following the passage of the stimulus package in Washington)

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (right, in the driver's seat next to Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas), who pushed for tough conditions on the $17.4 billion U.S. government bailout for General Motors and Chrysler, said at the Detroit auto show that he hoped Chrysler would find a merger partner to survive.

"Chrysler probably needs to merge with somebody, not necessarily disappear from the standpoint of existence," said Corker, who added the automaker owned by Cerberus Capital Management was not making the needed investment to remain competitive. He spoke to reporters as he toured the show before meeting with executives for GM, Chrysler and Ford.

Corker, whose home state includes the U.S. headquarters for Japan's Nissan, also said he felt GM's debt load was too heavy and it may not meet the restructuring targets set out under the $13.4 billion loan granted to the company by the Bush administration.

The Republican senator met with GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson and, during his visit to the GM stand at the show, sat in the Cadillac Converj, a luxury model of the all-electric Chevrolet Volt concept car.

Corker said he loved the Jeep he drove before he came to Congress, though he did not specify which model. Chrysler, which received $4 billion in emergency loans, owns the Jeep brand.

The most contentious issue in the Bush administration's bailout plan is a goal that seeks to bring hourly wages for the U.S. automakers' unionized work force in line with those of Toyota and other Japanese automakers operating nonunion U.S. factories.

The labor give-back provisions were spearheaded by Corker and incorporated into the bailout. A proposal to strip the Corker-inspired labor provisions from the automaker rescue was included in legislation introduced in the House of Representatives last week.

The UAW has said it is open to making some changes to help GM and Chrysler lower costs, but has vowed to try and get the administration of President-elect Barack Obama to amend the giveback targets. Obama, a Democrat, takes office Jan. 20.

GM and Chrysler are under tight deadlines to show progress. The automakers must demonstrate to the government within several weeks that they are lowering costs and making other changes required under the Bush administration's bailout plan.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner has said the automaker could seek further loans from the government at the end of March if the U.S. auto market does not improve. 

Corker also made a point during his tour of saying he had flown a commercial plane to Detroit for his visit. "I came Northwest Airlines and I want you to know it was right on time."

The CEOs for GM, Chrysler and Ford were criticized by lawmakers in November for separately flying company jets instead of less costly commercial planes to Washington as they sought billions in bailout funds from Congress.

(Photo/Reuters)