On a vote of 137-122, Waxman just unseated Dingell as chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. While seen as a plus for Obama’s pursuit of global warming solutions, this should also be viewed as a pivotal ‘change we can believe in’ moment, with Dingell so closely tied to the Big Three Amigo automakers.

It shouldn’t be considered as an abandonment of unionized autoworkers however. And let’s be clear on the fact that the funding rescue of the automakers is not just about the economic risks to the country as it is about the regional impact on Rust Belt states that have borne the brunt of economic distress for several decades.

Will the Blue Dog Dems of the non-unionized South prevail in their opposition to the bailout? If they do, it’ll be the first big loss for Obama.

Michael Moore has suggested:

President-Elect Obama has to say to them, yes, we’re going to use this money to save these jobs, but we’re not going to build these gas-guzzling, unsafe vehicles any longer.

We’re going to put the companies into some sort of receivership and we, the government, are going to hold the reins on these companies. They’re to build mass transit. They’re to build hybrid cars. They’re to build cars that use little or no gasoline.

We’re facing a national crisis, not just an economic crisis, but a crisis of the polar ice caps are melting. There’s only so much oil left under the Earth. We’re going to run out of that, if not in our children’s time, our grandchildren’s time.

There’s got to be a plan set out to find other ways to transport ourselves in other ways than using fossil fuels.

I think he’s close, though the solution I advocate should help get the reluctant Blue Dogs on board. Don’t bail out Chrysler. We’ve been there, done that already. And even though we recovered the cost of that under its management by Lee Iacocca, it’s a good time to set the precedent that no company gets bailed out twice.

Lehman Brothers was allowed to go under and I think it important that large corporations get the message again that our government will be selective in choosing who to rescue. Bailouts without such limits represent a blank check to corporate mismanagers. Telling Chrysler to sink or swim on its own puts GM and Ford on notice that their three decades of footdragging on energy efficiency standards ends now, or they’ll be the next to go.

Yes, that means rank and file workers will undeservedly be punished because of the sins of their corporate board. But then, that’s how companies remain solvent: by competing smartly. Or they cease to exist.

That’s a far better option than a choice between rescuing all or rescuing none. Add to that specific restrictions the corporate boards of GM and Ford must adhere to in return for their aid.

It’s a tough love approach. But without it, big businesses that have a long sad record of failing to compete efficiently will do bad business-as-usual. And we voted for change. We need to demonstrate we’re serious about that. We don’t just need to wean ourselves from our nation’s foreign oil addiction. We need to wean ourselves from an economy too dependent on automotive manufacturers, especially those that are too inept to run a successful business.