So now we have a desperate search for Act II of Detroit goes to Washington. There are burgeoning plans for an automotive cavalcade to Capitol Hill, presumably the week after next. The aim: show Detroit's vast economic reach, its legions of people, its advanced technology before delivering the Big Three CEOs back to Congress for yet more groveling and, I'd bet, self-flagellation. Done right, it could be an impressive show of relevant economic force -- a caravan of employees, retirees, dealers, suppliers, local and state politicians, dealers, union members and former executives, among others, in Detroit metal new and old making the case for the companies they depend on. Except the political case already has been made and accepted by the majority leadership in Congress and the incoming Obama administration. All they're haggling about is the price to be paid by the automakers in control, independence and strategic direction. In Washington, the chairs of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee would decide whether the 'plans' from General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and we-don't-really-need-no-stinkin'-bailout Ford Motor Co. would ensure the automakers' viability. It's breathtaking. Here we have the collective backbone of American manufacturing so weakened by its past, the financial tsunami of the present and an apocalyptic future that it is submitting willingly to quasi-nationalization. Politically correct government bureaucrats would get a veto over Detroit's product portfolio, manufacturing footprint, investment strategy and labor relations. If Detroit 'doesn't build what people want to buy,' as its many critics allege, exactly what expertise would congressional committees and an Obama administration bring to the table -- beyond trying to blindly emulate Toyota Motor Corp.'s product line, overnight? The answer is pretty much no expertise at all. Which doesn't mean that congressional leaders and Team Obama wouldn't use the automotive crisis to remake the Detroit industry into a green machine that neither Toyota nor its other rivals would recognize. Rule No. 1 of crisis management 101: Never waste an opportunity, as Obama's incoming chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel, says. And by the sound of his boss Monday, the president-elect has no intention of wasting this one, either, in an effort to 'save' the American auto industry by remaking it in the image he first unveiled to a chilly reception at the Detroit Economic Club. You can set the terms when you write the checks, draft the rules and own the nation's capital, especially when the humbled supplicants from Detroit are politically naive and show equal parts fear and desperation in their bids to avoid bankruptcy court and liquidation. Which isn't funny, even as a new Keystone Kops routine. Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at (313) 222-2106, [email protected] or detnews.com/howes.