MDL Advertises Smart Cars in Bloomington! Let's Go!

I wonder if ads like this in the Madison Daily Leader spoil Pat Prostrollo's breakfast:

Smart cars in Bloomington! Base price $12,000... not much more than I paid Cars for Les for my Jeep ten years ago. Might be easier to buy local if Prostrollo's offered buggies like the Smart car!

Madison Car Dealer: Whole State Happy About Cash for Clunkers

Pat Prostrollo really loves Cash for Clunkers. He loves it so much he'll let his general sales manager John Draper go on statewide television to say Obama and those Democrats in Washington are doing a spectacular job for the whole darn state.

Well, Draper didn't say exactly that... but close enough!

At Prostrollo Auto Mall in Madison, there's little doubt how everyone feels about "Cash For Clunkers."

"We're happy, customers are happy, and I think the whole local and state economy is happy because it's bringing in more business and more tax dollars," said John Draper, Prostrollo's General Sales Manager

Draper believes the auto industry has been steadily improving over the year. Along with lower gas prices and financial bailouts, the "Cash For Clunkers" program has helped revive his business.

"It was slow," Draper admitted. "Part of it was people were concerned about the viability of GM and Chrysler because of the bankruptcy. But now that that's handled, a lot of customers have some faith now there's going to be a dealer in their town" [David Brown, "Clunkers Help Small-Town Dealerships," KELOLand.com, 2009.08.08].

Everyone's happy. Whole state economy is better off. Pesky GM and Chrysler bankruptcies are handled. Dang—sounds like a mighty vote of confidence in Washington to me!

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Minor media quibbles:

1. Hey, David Brown, who you callin' "small-town"? We're Madison, the 13th biggest city in the whole state of South Dakota! And did you see the size of the Prostrollo Auto Mall (not to mention that big white buffalo)?
   
2. Send the sports guy to do news, and what do you get? "'There's a lot of confidence for the community and the people working at the car dealership and directly, for other businesses that are depending on the automobile business," Draper said. Which puts Madison squarely in the driver's seat." Ugh! Sentence fragment... and the figure of speech doesn't even make sense tacked onto the end of this quote. Call the Saturday editor!
   

Prostrollo Loves Cash for Clunkers

Pat Prostrollo, fellow socialist
(photo courtesy Madison Daily Leader)

The irony never ends in Madison. Affirmation of my argument that Cash for Clunkers is big government green stimulus that works comes from none other than GOP stalwart Pat Prostrollo:

Pat Prostrollo, president of Madison's Prostrollo Auto Mall, has no doubts that the rebate progam has performed in the manner that its backers had hoped.

"Since the program started, it's been fast and furious around here," Prostrollo said. "It's certainly done the job that the program was designed to do."

"We'd certainly like to see it carry on," he said. "We'd hate to disappoint the customers who want to use the program" [Chuck Clement, "Cash-for-Clunkers Runs out of Cash," Madison Daily Leader, 2009.07.31].

We are all socialists now.

I should have accepted that invitation to the Thune reception at Pat's dad's house last month. The conversation had to be fascinating:

Thune: All this government intervention in the economy is terrible.
Prostrollo: Darn right. No one should get a handout.
Thune: That's why I'm working to stop the bailouts.
Prostrollo: By the way, do you think just one billion is enough for Cash for Clunkers? I really thought the $4 billion in the House bill was a better idea....

Also of interest:

• Pat Prostrollo's campaign donations on OpenSecrets.org ($15,400 to the state GOP and GOP candidates for Congress and President over the last two decades)
• Representative Herseth Sandlin voted against Cash for Clunkers, along with 8 other Dems and 110 Republicans. She also voted yesterday against the $2 billion extension, with 13 other Dems and 95 Republicans.
  
• Senator Thune tried to block Cash for Clunkers, but ultimately voted with Senator Johnson and 89 other senators to pass the supplemental appropriations bill that authorized the program.
• The National Auto Dealers Association is alerting dealers to call their senators and urge them to pass more funding for Cash for Clunkers. Senator Thune, Pat Prostrollo on line 1....