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In\u00a0June 2009<\/a>\u00a0a team of\u00a0Jones Day lawyers<\/a>, including Kevyn Orr, defended Chrysler in federal court against some 100,000 Indiana teacher and police pensioners. They were suing the bankrupt Detroit company claiming its offer of just 29 cents for their secured bonds was illegal. The pensioners\u2019 Chrysler investment was part of their retirement income, yet their lawsuit \u2014 filed by Indiana\u2019s treasurer \u2014 received little media attention and no sympathy from Washington Democrats or the Obama administration. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez quickly dismissed the suit, saying the public employee pensions were less important than\u00a0saving Chrysler<\/a>\u00a0and the economy from harm.<\/p>\n While public employee unions suffered, however, their auto worker cousins in the Chrysler (and GM bailouts) got preferential treatment, with President Obama\u2019s auto task force giving the UAW significant ownership of the two companies and full funding of their pensions.<\/p>\n Fast forward to 2013 and once again a bankrupt Detroit, this time the municipality, is making headlines as now-Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is under siege from public employee unions and union-bound politicians demanding Washington intervention. Barack Obama, however, is nowhere to be found. He has, to quote the\u00a0infamous Mitt Romney column<\/a>\u00a0that Obama exploited to win reelection in 2012, \u201clet Detroit go bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n Why the aboutface from the White House on Detroit just four years after it saved Motown automakers \u2014 and just two years after Obama made saving Detroit a centerpiece of his re-election campaign?<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the UAW union,\u201d says Pat Caddell, veteran Democratic campaign consultant. An important difference, says Caddell and others political experts, is that \u2014 unlike the Detroit auto bankruptcies \u2014 there is no UAW to save this time.<\/p>\n As in the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies, Detroit public employee pensions are a concern. But they are local political players, say experts, and not enough of a concern to warrant intervention from a Democratic president. The UAW was a different matter in the auto bailouts because automakers are major employers of a special interest crucial to national Democratic Party fundraising and grassroots support. In 2012, for example, the UAW\u00a0gave $12 million<\/a>\u00a0to Democratic super PACs.<\/p>\n The auto rescues deserve their nickname, the UAW Bailout.<\/p>\n \u201cMuch was up in the air politically in 2009,\u201d\u00a0says Caddell<\/a>, who has worked for numerous presidential campaigns including Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden. \u201cThe UAW represented a broader constituency than just Michigan. It was crucial in Ohio and other key political states. There were a lot of subcontractors \u2014 a lot of unions \u2014 involved.\u201d<\/p>\n