Headed to Congress, Toyota Better Leave the Private Jet Home

(MoneyWatch)  Here's a friendly tip from Chrysler, Ford (F) and General Motors for Toyota (TM) executives traveling to Washington for a hearing into the Toyota gas-pedal recall later this month before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: Leave the corporate jet at home.

Detroit executives wish they had. The Big Three walked into a buzzsaw of Congressional criticism in late 2008. The U.S. companies had apparently missed the irony of showing up in Washington in private jets, looking for a taxpayer-funded bailout. That irony was forcefully pointed out to them.

Toyota is heading for a similar buzzsaw, judging by the agenda for the Oversight Committee hearing into the Toyota recall, and the list of witnesses who have been invited to testify, including Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. The Toyota hearing was supposed to be Feb. 10, but the Oversight committee postponed it until Feb. 24.

The Safety Research group recently published a report that is highly critical, to put it mildly, of both Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for failing to solve earlier Toyota-related incidents. On the face of it, the earlier incidents sound a lot like Toyota's gas-pedal situation today.

In response to earlier statements from Toyota executives, Kane's group on Feb. 1 posted an item called, "Thoroughly Investigated? We Don't Think So." That's a good indication of what Toyota can expect. Separately, the House Energy and Commerce Committee also announced it will hold hearings Feb. 25 to look into consumer complaints against Toyota.

Other witnesses for the Oversight Committee hearing include Ray LaHood, the incumbent secretary of transportation, and David Strickland, the current NHTSA administrator. Their political-theater role will be to reassure Congressional Democrats and the public that the Democratic Obama Administration is vigorously on the case, and not asleep at the switch.

The unenviable role of representing Toyota at the hearing falls to Yoshimi Inaba, president and CEO of?€? Toyota Motor North America, Inc. He needs to roll up to the hearing in a Toyota Prius or a Toyota Camry to show they're safe to drive, and to underscore that (hopefully) he didn't arrive in a corporate jet.

Also called to testify is Joan Claybrook, the former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter and an auto industry gadfly.

If there's any cold comfort for Toyota, it's that alongside Toyota, the Oversight Committee's unwritten political agenda emphatically includes criticizing the Bush Administration NHTSA.

From Toyota's point of view, the fact that somebody else is going to be in the hot seat isn't going to be much comfort -- especially if they're not present.

Photo: oversight.house.gov