Stupid Is as Stupid Does, Sir

They just don't get it. Even Forrest Gump could have figured this out.

You're on your way to Washington to beg for $25 billion to shore up your faltering auto manufacturing businesses. The eyes of the world will be on you. It's been a rough twenty years, because you've failed to adapt to a changing market.

Earlier giveaways to corporate executives and labor unions with no thought of sustainability have left your industry crippled. The credit squeeze has exacerbated the downward spiral of new car sales, pressing down on the accelerator right after record gasoline prices drove American's away from purchasing high-end, low mileage SUVs that were your profit centers.

So what do you do? Fly private jets to the hearings.

"There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they're going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses," Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

Corporate heads often take private aircraft for "security reasons", but they weren't flying to Iran. They were traveling beggers. And spending $20,000 on a private jet trip instead of dropping $500 on a round-trip commercial carrier tells us all we need to know about these guys.

We've seen it before - AIG holding outings in lavish surroundings after their bailout. Ken Lay from Enron throwing decadent parties while his company crashed and his employee's retirement savings burned.

It's hard to imagine just how detached corporate executives have become. Thankfully, there's proof all around us.