(Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in his custom-made Alfa Romeo 2300 6C; not the car he and his mistress were finally caught in as WWII ended by a po'd Italian public which dragged them out of the car, shot them and strung them up - upside down. But it's still a nice looking car neverthess; Fiat now owns Alfa Romeo and wants their cars, along with Lancia and possibly Ferraris and Maseratis sold in US Chrysler dealerships - Fiat is trying to take-over Chrysler without spending even one dime or lira).
Tomorrow, Tuesday, General Motors and Chrysler must turn-in their homework, uh, "viability plans," to the Obama Administration and Congress The plans are supposed to detail how the companies will slash-and-burn worker numbers and their pay and benefits, shut down factories, minimize use of suppliers, cut back their dealerships and - at the same time - plan, create, build, market, advertise and sell the safe, clean and high-mileage cars and trucks American needs. Also, not incidentally, how the firms plan on paying back the over $13 billion in loans they've already received from taxpayers.
And just two more things: help the country develop the fuels of the future and we feds might be asking you folks to build high-speed and light rail systems and cars, too.
On a technical note, the plans are expected to be filed electronically, with no public appearances for the Detroit Three's top executives planned, following their disastrous performances during Congressional hearings held in December.
In Washington, a lot has been happening on the domestic auto front.
(Ford's popular European high-mileage near-$25,000 Fiesta ECOnetic model, top, seen here at last summer's Paris Auto Show, has a 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine which achieves 65 miles per gallon; a version of the car, probably with a gasoline engine, will be sold in the US starting perhaps late in 2010; their gas/electric Fusion hybrid - just-announced base price at $27,270 - and upscale twin Mercury Milan hybrid - $27,500 base price - seems like a good buy - displayed for the first time at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show, are rated near 41mpg average and will be in dealers later this year - Cars and plans for cars like these are one reason the future looks perhaps survivable by Ford in the American market).
Last week, the administration hired two international law firms and the Rothschild Investment Bank, all with experience with large corporate bankruptcies. Their charge: to prepare strategies for the possible "forced bankruptcies" of one or both of the car makers.
Perhaps most important in the long run, the administration has nixed the idea of a single "car czar," instead announcing formation of a panel to oversee whatever happens next in Detroit. It's expected to be chaired by, according to the Associated Press, President Obama's new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the president's National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers.
Now might be a good time to remember that old joke: that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.
If GM's plan is received favorably, the company might soon receive another $4 billion in taxpayer loans, while $4 billion is, so far, the total of taxpayer loans given to Chrysler, and, if their plan is approved, expect that company to soon ask for more. Much more. 
(From left, Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, Chrysler's Bob Nardelli and GM's Rick Wagoner try to hang tough at a Congressional hearing last December; decades of pent-up anger, and the opportunity to be snarky in front of their constituents, resulted in elected officials going after the Detroit Three chiefs like flies at a hog killing; to be honest, Detroit's guys didn't offer any goods answers, either).
Ford, meanwhile, continues to say they expect to get through this down period without any taxpayer money. But the company's vaunted sales and growth in markets outside the US, which saved Ford in the 1970s when the company's future in the US was also somewhat in doubt, has slowed and nearly stopped, just as it has in their home market.
Ford is already drawing on a bank-supplied $10 billion line of credit negotiated before the Bush Depression hit Detroit in a serious way, but also says they're planning to "defer," or miss, $2 billion in upcoming payments.
Ford has also been working quietly with Washington, asking for a $9 billion line of credit from taxpayers if and when they need it; I think they will need it, and soon. This credit line, if established, will be yet another loan to Detroit from the American people.
While Fiat's take-over of Chrysler is still in the works, and can't happen without Washington's approval, there's a growing movement in Italy demanding Fiat and Italian government money not be spent to pay back American taxpayers' money which Chrysler has already been loaned. 
(The new Ferrari California hardtop convertible was introduced at last year's Paris Auto Show; Fiat owns Ferrari, as well as Lancia, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, and says they want to take-over Chrysler to get some of their Euro cars and trucks into Chrysler's US dealerships; Chrysler says they can learn small car and small engine design and manufacturing from Fiat. The irony is that was the same reason Daimler gave for buying Chrysler in the 1990s).
Last week, a right-wing legislator in Italy called for public protests if any Italian money is used to pay Chrysler's debt to taxpayers. Their government essentially owns Fiat and all its ancillary companies, and it's the country's largest manufacturer of any kind. Even a loan - or money used by Fiat to purchase Chrysler - may well be seen by Italians as their taxes going to the US government, which is probably one reason Chrysler is willing to cede control of the company to Fiat for not one penny - or lira.
The serious fun starts in earnest tomorrow, while the Detroit Three are all now balanced on the head of the same pin, the chance of one, two or all three falling appearing more possible - some say probable - every day. 
(Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will co-chair the White House's auto industry committee along with Lawrence Summers).
How else could the Detroit Three be helped, or should they have received any assistance at all? With over three million US jobs tied directly to the auto industry, maybe this is truly a case of their being "too big to fail." What do you think? What can - or should - be done now?
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