Corker hopes Chrysler will merge

Freshman Senator Bob Corker, who savaged Chrysler and General Motors during the recent loan hearings, today told reporters that he hopes Chrysler will find a merger partner.

“Chrysler probably needs to merge with somebody, not necessarily go away from the standpoint of existence,” according to the junior Senator from Tennessee. “It appears to me based on what I have looked at that they have not invested in technology and those kind of things necessary to be a standalone.”

Corker, who was accompanied by a throng of reporters as he toured the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, added, “My hope is they will in fact merge and be a viable part of Michigan and our country.”

Corker, perhaps mindful he was in Detroit, hometown of the United Auto Workers, also said he was misquoted and never said union workers made too much money.

“I never said that,” he claimed. “What I said was they needed to be competitive. That was the language that I used. We only focused on the active worker.”

Corker may say he has been misquoted, but a proposal to strip the labor provisions he demanded as part of any automaker financial assistance is now part of legislation to expand the government bailout program that was introduced in the House last week.