You have to wonder at the mental states of these overpaid gasbags who are in charge of enormous companies, and in turn responsible for tens of thousands of employees’ and shareholders’ (and even the economy’s) livelihoods. Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman, has responded vehemently to the Bush administration’s proposal that automakers must raise CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) and CO2 standards 4% per year over the next several years (I know, Bush doing something good for the environment — shocking, although it took 10 states suing the federal government to make it happen). Lutz has now created a standoff of sorts, saying GM will halt development on a number of RWD vehicles, the very cars that many people are looking forward to and that are supposed to get GM out of its profit rut. He said to the Chicago Tribune, “We’ve pushed the pause button. It’s no longer full speed ahead.”

Lutz claims that improving the fuel economy will raise consumer prices by $5,000 because of the investment required by the automaker. And here’s his logic-bomb on why raising CAFE is not a good idea: “If we legislate CO2 from cars, why not legislate we take one less breath per minute since human release capricious amounts of CO2?”

What? Did the man really just compare exhaust from cars to a person’s right to breathe? And now he’s holding hostage some of the very vehicles that are supposed to save the American auto industry? What an idiot.

That car behind Lutz in the above image is the new Pontiac G8 — one of the awesome new vehicles that might be delayed (Motor Trend described the G8 as an “American M5″). That was the one vehicle that may have actually made me consider purchasing something from GM, but I think Bob Lutz’s attitude just killed any chance of me shopping with the General. Since Ford’s cars are boring and breakable, and Chrysler has lost their way and is now being sold, looks like I’m once again looking at just the stuff from overseas, where they actually know how to make cars and make a profit at the same time.