UAW head blasts Bush's "Idol" worship

By James B. Kelleher

DETROIT (Reuters) - The president of the United Auto Workers union on Tuesday said U.S. President George W. Bush's failure to address the challenges facing the nation's domestic automakers would come back to haunt his Republican Party in the fall elections.

UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger said he believed Bush's decision to postpone a meeting with auto executives until after the November elections -- despite being in Michigan recently at a fund-raiser for the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow -- was an example of the president putting party politics above national economics.

The union has historically supported Democratic political candidates.

"Apparently, (Bush) thinks that if he did something for Michigan right now ... he might be helping (Stabenow) get re-elected when he's trying to unseat her," Gettelfinger said at the Reuters Auto Summit in Detroit.

Gettelfinger also said it was "ludicrous" that Bush had no time for the car industry, but managed to find the time to tap Clay Aiken, the runner-up on the popular U.S. reality talent show "American Idol," to serve on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

After a flurry of criticism arose last week, Bush called William Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), on the telephone. But the White House said a face-to-face meeting with leaders of the three Detroit auto companies would only take place after the fall vote to keep the discussions from getting mired in election-season politics.

"How humiliating is it that he's got time to meet with the (TV show's) American Idol, that he can come in for a fund-raiser to unseat an incumbent United States senator, but then he only has time to make a phone call to ... Bill Ford," Gettelfinger said.

WHITE HOUSE'S RESPONSE  Continued...