Unfortunately, Washington operates in sound bites and symbols. The good news is that those sound bites and symbols occasionally shame Congress into doing the right thing. That seems to have happened with the auto bailout.

Columns and columns have been written, cogent arguments constructed, and plenty of good advice rendered to the effect that a bailout is misguided,  and that only a bankruptcy proceeding can provide the legal mechanism needed to restructure major American automakers. But it took a boneheaded move by the Big Three CEO’s–flying to D.C. in private jets–to galvanize the media and make it virtually impossible for the Democrats to throw away billions more on recalcitrant, failing companies. Harry Reid finally got it:

I want to help them. It’s not the companies. I want to help the workers. That’s where I am. The people who work there deserve our attention. But the path has been laid by these bosses who came here yesterday on their corporate jets. . . . They all flew down here in their corporate jets. It’s just not the right picture.

In some sense, this is karma. The arrogance and obtuseness of the car companies’ management has come back to haunt them. As self-evident as the anti-bailout argument seemed to be, it took a mega-gaffe to do it in. That’s the way Washington operates, I suppose. But at least this time it seems to have worked out for the best.