OK, don't say you didn't see this coming, that you are surprised.

After Congress castigated Detroit auto executives for flying on private company planes to Washington to testify before Congress about their need for taxpayer money--and getting it--Congress seems to think they own the auto manufacturers. Writing in the Detroit Free Press Jewel Gopwani reports

so many federal officials want to attend the Detroit auto show that organizers have, for the first time, created a new credential specifically for those in government.

Requests for passes to the show are pouring in from members of Congress, the Department of Transportation and other agencies, Doug Fox, chairman of the 2010 North American International Auto Show, said today.

And not only will these politicians get in free

When the show opens to the press, analysts and politicians Jan. 11, about twice as many federal officials are expected to be in attendance, wearing the new gray and silver passes. The Detroit auto show opens to the public Jan. 16.

The public? But...but isn't "the public," by virtue of its tax dollars, bailing out the auto companies, the real owner of said companies and as such, also entitled to the new spiffy gray and silver free, get in early passes? Shouldn't paying for the privilege of attending the auto show after its preview be reserved for union officials whose greedy and rigid demands helped drive the auto companies to the brink? How about those politicians whose careless tax and spend short term policies contributed to the failure of the auto companies, non Americans, and/or those individuals who don't pay taxes and thus don't own a share in the auto companies?

Just asking, just trying to be fair.