![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.politico.com\/global\/news\/110603_obama_chrysler_ap_605.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Obama White House intimidation of writers like\u00a0Bob Woodward<\/a>\u00a0over sequestration will come as no surprise to Detroit, where the administration\u2019s bullying tactics were legend in the auto bailouts of GM and Chrysler.<\/p>\n Call it the Chicago Way.<\/p>\n I\u00a0reported for National Review<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and Frank Beckmann for his radio show \u2013 in 2009 of White House Auto Task Force intimidation of Wall Street bondholders who resisted the administration\u2019s illegal efforts to move its Big Labor allies to the front of the line ahead of secured debt holders.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight,\u201d lawyer Tom Lauria, representing \u00a0Perella Weindbergtold<\/a>\u00a0Beckmann in March, 2009. Lauria later disclosed that \u00a0the brass knuckles belonged to Auto Task Force leader Steve Rattner.<\/p>\n Take da deal or we break yer legs.<\/p>\n As with Woodward, this White House does not treat kindly those that refuse to give the president his way. In the case of Wall Street bondholders, presidential intervention from a man who controls the IRS and SEC is intimidation enough as Obama unloaded on them publicly, accusing them of being \u201cspeculators\u201d out to destroy an American industrial icon.<\/p>\n Lauria\u2019s account of private pressure also conveyed White House confidence in its lapdog press corps (\u201cthe full force of the White House press corps\u201d) to press the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Thanks to White House tactics, the UAW ultimately made out like a bandit in the Chrysler deal, winning 55 percent of the company while bondholders were forced to take 29 cents on the dollar \u2013 gutting the savings of their police and teacher cpensions clients.<\/p>\n