LOS ANGELES — One headline writer at Business Week recently griped, 'Where's Lee Iacocca When You Need Him?' The automotive icon resurfaced on Tuesday, throwing his considerable weight and reputation behind the management of the Big Three automakers, as some in Congress continued to insist that top executives in Detroit will have to go as part of any federal loan program.'Having been there, I do not agree with the sentiment now coming out of Congress that the management should be changed as a condition of granting loans to the Detroit automakers,' opined the 84-year-old Iacocca in a written statement. 'You don't change coaches in the middle of a game, especially when things are so volatile. The industry has been brutalized by a totally unpredictable series of events over which it had little control and that is beating it unmercifully into the ground.'The companies may not be perfect, but the guys who are running them now are the only ones with the experience and the in-depth knowledge and understanding of how the car business really works. They're by far the best shot we have for success. I say give them their marching orders and then let them march. They're the right people to get the job done.'He added: 'Running a multibillion-dollar automobile company with thousands of employees, retirees, suppliers, dealers and communities counting on you is not for the weak of heart or for the timid or the untried. Especially the untried.'Iacocca is the former chairman and CEO of Chrysler and the former president of Ford. He is perhaps best known for resuscitating Chrysler in the 1980s with the help of federal loan guarantees. He is also the author of the best-seller Talking Straight. Business Week last month proclaimed: 'Detroit hasn't had a CEO with Lido's presence since he retired,' in a story criticizing the bumbling appearance of current Detroit auto CEOs as they appealed to Congress for financial aid.While Iacocca never mentioned GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner by name in his statement, the implication was clear.Wagoner may be forced to resign from his post as part of a broad bailout of GM by the federal government. Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, suggested in a Sunday appearance on the CBS show Face the Nation that Wagoner should go if the government provides billions of dollars to help the automaker. He continued the drumbeat on Monday, telling ABC's Good Morning, America that 'it's not my job to hire and fire, but what I'm trying to suggest is that you need to have new teams in place.'Yesterday, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz griped that Wagoner would be a 'sacrificial lamb' under such circumstances. Inside Line says: Of course, Iacocca also famously said, 'The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.' — Anita Lienert, Correspondent