The U.S. Government pounding away at Toyota has a “Conflict Of Interest.”

Last year in 2009 Toyota made many of the Best Cars available with awards both from a reliability and safety standpoint. Last year Democrats postponed Bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler with government ownership.

Now, less than a year later according to U.S. government officials and media accomplices Toyota is “knowingly” building “Dastardly” Death Traps, unsuitable for Americans to drive.

Is this true?…Well, Of Course Not. Safety issues that lead to recalls generally occur in very small numbers, often barely rising above statistical noise. Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem, for instance, involved a handful of cases in literally billions of miles of driving.

This whole Toyota saga began as a few uncertain questions about “sudden acceleration”. Every major car-maker receives occasional reports of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA). In the last decade, the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency logged some 24,000 SUA complaints. Less than 50 of these red flags were investigated. Why so few? The main reason is the nebulous nature of SUA. Often the problem occurs once, never to happen again. It’s tough to fix a defect that can’t be replicated. And then there’s the driver variable. As awful as this is to think about, it’s been shown that sometimes drivers simply mix up which pedal they’re pushing.

In the late 1980s, the Audi 5000 was the target of a barrage of SUA allegations, lawsuits and press reports. In the end, NHTSA concluded that driver error was the only likely explanation for the incidents.

Now though what started as a few questions has taken on a “Life” and morphed into a media and political firestorm over the safety of Toyota’s entire fleet. To insure product safety Toyota has issued three recalls involving 8 million vehicles and even halted sales briefly until potentially affected vehicles could be fitted with an engineered correction solution.

But the U.S.government saw an opportunity to “Not Allow A Good Crisis Go To Waste”. There’s no question that as Toyota announced recalls, some in the Obama administration and Congress saw advantage in undermining Toyota. Maybe this could be an opportunity to get back at Toyota for wiping up during “cash for clunkers”. Besides as the majority owner of Government Motors it couldn’t hurt to fan the image of Toyota in the eyes of American drivers. Shoppers might just buy a GM instead of a Toyota, thereby propping up government investment and bolstering United Auto Worker union jobs. And of course the trial bar would be thrilled by a fat new class-action target.

The U.S. government and media hammered this campaign daily for weeks with Obama Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood leading the charge. “This is a big deal, this is a big safety issue,” he exclaimed. “My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it,” he went on to say. Mr. LaHood later claimed he’d misspoke.

Ever wonder what the Odds are of experiencing “sudden acceleration” in a Toyota? Take a look along with a few other reference points…

• Odds of experiencing “sudden acceleration” in a Toyota are considered to be 13,500 to 1
• Odds of Getting Shot in a Crowd in New Orleans are considered to be 1,199 to 1
• Odds of fatality slipping in bath or shower  2,232 to 1
• Odds of being considered possessed by satan 7000 to 1

Mr. LaHood and Washington’s enthusiasm in bashing Toyota is beginning to backfire though and the U.S. government is “suddenly trying to decelerate” its campaign against Toyota. It was inevitable that such a loud attack would lead to questions as to whether the administration was carrying water for the domestic industry. The White House is today fielding as many queries about its role as owner and regulator as Toyota is fielding about recalls.

It is also occurring to some Democrats that, while Toyotas are mainly assembled in red states, they are, uh, sold in blue ones. A loss in sales for Toyota will idle Toyota factory workers, Toyota dealerships and suppliers. Some of these folks even live in Michigan. More employment loss does not translate very well into re-election votes.

Toyota has recently made the statement that the Department of Transportation and National Highway Safety Administration “under the Obama Administration” is “Not Industry Friendly.” All of this has led a growing number of politicians to worry about a Japanese retaliation against U.S. auto makers who’s Huge list of recalls and defective cars virtually goes unannounced.

Toyota has not yet laid off a single one of its 34,000 U.S. workers, but that may change. Only a year ago, Democrats were shouting about economic damage if GM or Chrysler went bust. They postponed that with government ownership. They along with Toyota are now dealing with the all-too-easy-to-predict political behavior that follows such meddling in the private economy.