Chrysler: The Company Spokesman Said... Good-Bye

It's not every day that the WSJ decides to cover the resignation of a corporate flack at the number-three domestic player in a troubled manufacturing industry.

But when the boss is Bob Nardelli, and the flack is a free-wheeling former stand-up comic, then it wasn't all that shocking to see Jeff Bennett and Neal Boudette deliver nearly 400 words on the subject. In print, no less.

Why?

Because as a plot point, the resignation -- which would be tiny news in almost any other context -- swims right into the hungry jaws of the current Nardelli/Chrysler narrative, one of the sexiest business stories currently unfolding. Famously, the GE-bridesmaid was run out of Home Depot on a $210-million-cushioned rail for rubbing just about every one of his constituents the wrong way. So when Cerberus surprised everybody by hiring Nardelli to run Chrysler, it prompted an obvious question.

Does Bob Nardelli have the human leadership skills needed for success, even in a privately held company?

Thus, yesterday's announcement of the resignation of long-time auto flack Jason Vines triggered relatively big coverage, as it set up the irresistible notion neatly encapsulated by the hed on Micheline Maynard's NYT DealBook story:

"With Spokesman Out, Is Chrysler Preparing to Hush Up?"

Quite fairly, Maynard notes that "hushing up" may be driven more by strategy than personality.

"In a sense, Chrysler's move is logical. Cerberus, as a private company, no longer needs to have the public profile that Chrysler had as a publicly owned company and as part of DaimlerChrysler from 1998 until August."

Sure. But even more so, it's a lot of fun to insinuate that Nardelli is showing off his supposed tin ear by shunning reporters and closing the Chrysler curtains to create Cerberus-style secrecy.

Is that what's about to happen?

Don't bet on it.

(And Jack Flack will tell you why shortly.)