The truth is that the chief executives of the Big Three automakers could have hitchhiked to Washington to beg for alms and they still would have been raked over the coals. But the fact that they came in their corporate jets was a bit much. What, they couldn't have piled into a tricked-out Malibu and taken turns at the wheel? Richard Wagoner of General Motors, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford should begin the inevitable cost-cutting by firing their public relations consultants. They left Capitol Hill empty-handed, but they're bound to get some kind of federal help, however grudging. In the end, I don't think either George W. Bush or Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the president who lost the auto industry. Strings will be attached, solemn promises extracted, oaths signed in blood. At some point -- I'm an eternal optimist -- the wizards of Detroit might even come up with a car or two that Americans want to buy. If not, well, the Big Three execs can always come back to town -- by more modest means of transportation, one hopes. If there's anything beneficial in this predictable melodrama, it's that contemplating a taxpayer-funded rescue of the auto industry might make Americans realize the extent to which their government already puts its big, fat thumb on the scales of free enterprise. The idea that the US economy is based on unfettered free markets is, and has long been, a cruel joke. It's more of a joke now, arguably, than at any time since the ...