Extreme Mortman and Lil’ Extreme take in the DC Auto Show

Poor Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Last we heard from the pro wrestler, he was campaigning in South Carolina for Mike Huckabee.

Where’d that endorsement get the 16-times world champion?

Selling calls.

From ProWrestling.com:

WWE Diva Torrie Wilson and Ric Flair are confirmed to be at the 2008 Washington DC Auto Show on Wednesday, January 23rd. Fans will be able to meet Torrie Wilson and Ric Flair, however tickets are required for the Auto Show admission which are $12 for adults and $5 for children. Torrie Wilson and Ric Flair will be there between 5pm and 7pm.

Vladimir Putin and gang may be having a rough day.  But these are even worse days for Russian automakers.

From TMCnet:

The Kremlin’s current rulers are belatedly encouraging a nationalist resurgence, but former Volga owners are ignoring the command and opting instead for ever bigger and brasher foreign brands - like those on show at this week’s International Auto Show in Frankfurt - if they can afford them.
“Why am I driving this Land Rover? Because it’s comfortable,” said Yuri Golobayev, rubbing his hands along the dashboard to show his appreciation, as he sat in traffic near Red Square.
“In the communist days, we didn’t have a choice, so my first car was a Moskvich, then a Kopeika.”

Yakov Smirnoff eat your heart out!

Reminding us of the good old days.  The Eisenhower/Churchill days.

Republican Rep. Bob Inglis’ fourth congressional district in South Carolina features a significant investment from BMW — the huge Zentrum factory in Spartanburg, where 4500 workers produce more than 100,000 BMW vehicles a year,

Inglis, the ranking member of the Energy & Environment Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, advocates the “Hydrogen Economy” and is a founding member of the House Hyrdogen and Fuel Cell Caucus.  All that dovetails well with the new BMW Hydrogen 7, a luxury performance sedan featured at Zentrum.

So it’s no surprise that in its new issue, BMW Magazine spotlights Inglis, including a full-page photo of him wading knee-deep into a BMW pool  (don’t worry: his trousers are rolled up at the knees) with this caption: “Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) stands by BMW while they help lead the way to a healthy, clean Hydrogen Future.”

But what might surprise some is this headline over a story about a Republican: “The Convert on Global Warming.”  And these Inglis quotes:

• “Human beings are a substantial cause of global warming.”
• “I shouldn’t be able to do something on my land that can do harm to my neightbor’s land.”
• Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” is “compelling”

Further proof that all politics is local — and looks real sharp in a sporty BMW.

The Washington Post reports today on the newest hybrid Democrat sighting: John Dingell and Nancy Pelosi at the Washington Auto Show.  Here’s the Bloomberg/Post photo:

Turns out, Pelosi is on to something by going to the auto show with Dingell — and it’s not just good politics.

A study by Auto Retailing Today, a coalition of all major automobile manufacturers and dealer organizations, shows that women bring their spouses or partners to shop with them “because it is a family investment requiring serious deliberation.”  Acording to the research, women rate the purchase experience highly and exhibit confidence in buying vehicles.

Assuming their outing went just as well, wonder what else Pelosi and Dingell will go shopping for.

A dig at President Bush — in the Washington Post’s Cars column?

Indeed, check out Sunday’s Warren Brown review of 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX Sport Wagon.  He opens by mentioning his wife:

I wish she would commit to learning how to drive a manual-transmission car, something she has resisted through 37 years of marriage.  I’ve tried to get the woman to shift gears. But getting her to change her mind is more difficult than getting President Bush to change his.

The Washington Post ran this story today:

Toyota said yesterday that it was on track to become the world’s largest automaker next year, dethroning General Motors and underlining how far auto manufacturing has fallen from its once-pivotal place in America’s economy and politics.

I talked to an auto industry insider about the story. His astute observation: Here’s the reason Toyota is taking over the auto market. For years, the model for American manufacturers was build the car, sell it, and then fix it. The Toyota way is different. For Toyota, the model is build a car, fix it, and then sell it.

Extreme Mortman’s glass-enclosed nerve center is extremely excited about the “Miami Vice” movie, so much so that we’ve told our staff to remove all socks, wear pastel only, and go a few days without shaving.

And we love this observation about ’80s era drug dealers versus the current ones from Guy Lewis, a former federal prosecutor in Miami now in private practice:  “They used to drive Ferraris and Porsches.  Now they drive Camrys. They’ve gone from the penthouse to the suburbs.”

Like most Americans facing the prospect of $4/gallon gas, I’m really concerned about the impact on C-SPAN’s Book TV bus.

I mean, that dude is huge!

You may not know this, but the Book TV Bus, a new 45-foot coach bus outfitted with a state-of-the-art production studio and the latest TV technology and Internet café, has visited 36 states, 135 cities and logged nearly 30,000 miles since it headed on the highway looking for adventure whatever comes its way September 2005.

We can’t tell you the mileage it gets, or if it needs regular unleaded or premium, or if the  interior is full of empty sandwich wrappers, or if the bus goes below 50 mph does the bomb go off, but it’s no secret that Book TV has aired approximately 2,500 hours of non-fiction programming and featured about 1,200 individual authors.

And they’ve got really cool T-shirts, modeled here by sweet Emily, the Littlest Extreme Mortman.