Why do they hate us?

That's the question anyone associated with Detroit's automobile industry must be asking today after witnessing the openly hostile reception a U.S. Senate committee gave the heads of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler and the United Auto Workers on Tuesday.

It wasn't so much what the senators said — although that was often brutally frank — but the tone in which they said it.

The senators' remarks dripped with disdain for companies that not so long ago formed the foundation of industrial America.

The automakers "will inevitably go under," opined lame-duck Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., to MSNBC. The industry is "seeking treatment for wounds that were largely self-inflicted," declared Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., as he opened the hearings into federal bridge loans for the ailing automakers.

And so it went. All day long, commentators and lawmakers castigated the Big Three and the UAW for a litany of sins ranging from boneheaded management decisions to bloated union contracts.

Not since the tobacco company executives were dragged to the woodshed in the 1990s has a group of industry leaders been so meanly handled by Congress. Even the Wall Street wheeler-dealers got more respect.

And the anti-Detroit mob is not limited to lawmakers or even to those outside of Michigan. For the last several months, letters received by this newspaper from readers have been running two-to-one in opposition to the domestic industry. Writers blame the companies for killing jobs, for moving plants overseas, for ruining an industry — and they blame the UAW for bleeding the companies dry.

At this point, it doesn't matter that, for the most part, the attacks on the automakers are based on misinformation or conditions long ago dealt with. Clearly, public opinion is not with the Big Three.

That means the domestic industry, if it survives — or perhaps to survive — has a major public relations challenge to meet. It's not enough to remind Americans that these companies created the middle class, or that they willingly morphed into the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, or that they sacrificed profits to help the nation recover from the shock of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Americans want to know what the carmakers are doing for them today and will do for them tomorrow.

It's the reality of the challenge facing Detroit.

If it hopes to move the exciting new models out of showrooms when consumers start buying cars again, the domestic industry must give some serious attention to its image.

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