Cerberus' attempt to fix Chrysler has been a notorious failure. That's hardly a secret. What is new is Cerberus' chief's defense of his record. Stephen Feinberg tells the New York Times that he's now sure what he could have done differently. A statement that stands in marked contrast to the tone he took when he bought into Chrysler. Cerberus and its co-investors invested $7.4 billion in Chrysler. That investment has now tumbled to $1.4 billion.

He's now couching his efforts as a reflection of his patriotism and a desire to do something for America--as if he wasn't doing it for the money. You can make of that what you will, but the fact is that Chrysler is now an American icon for all the wrong reasons. Some will see it, fairly or not, as a symbol of the empty promises of a misguided private equity firm. He also tells the Times: "Maybe what we should have done was not buy it." 

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