jessica caldwell with edmunds.com, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> ifill: now, two of theding architects of the government's response to the financial crisis returned to capitol hill today. both the current and former treasury secretaries got an earful from democrats and republicans about their role in the bailout of insurance giant a.i.g. "newshour" congressional correspondent kwame holman has our report. >> reporter: amid rising public anger about the bailouts of financial institutions, treasury secretary tim geithner was called before the house government reform and oversight committee to explain the government's 2008 rescue of insurance giant a.i.g.. geithner said there was no choice. >> deciding to support a.i.g. was one of the most difficult choices i have ever been involved in in over 20 years of public service. the steps that were taken were motivated solely by what we believe to be in the public interest. we did not act because a.i.g. asked for help. we did not act to protect individual institutions. we acted because the consequences of a.i.g. failing would have b

. >> woodruff: for moron this sty we turn to jessica caldwell, a nior automotive analyst with eunds.comconsumer w site. jessica caldwellthank you for beg with us unprecedented, is that because never before have this many carseen taken off the lots? >> right, judy. i think-- u know, i think really the unpcedented comes from the fact they're stping sales. so this is gng beyond a vehie recall. this igoing beyond problems in production. this is , you ow, consumers gog to the democrat that cannot buy these investigati , and it's-- and it's su a wide variy of vehicles, too. i think at's when you wanto throw out that wd "unprecedent." really haven't seen anythin like this in the indusy, ever. >> woodruff: the eight modelwe mentioned , 20052007, 8, 9, and , why is this just surfacing now? >> there he been grumbling for pastew years and i think the ne report earlier kind of alluded to it. yoknow, was it a floor mat issue? was it an acceletor issue? i think really what's co out now is that we ju don't know, you ow, and they're trying to isolate that problem rightow. so it's not just one thing. it

joining us now, jessica caldwell, senior analyst with d edmun edmunds.com. the car dealers do it? >> this has been a really bad year for you aer tomakers, without a doubt with the bankruptcy issues, the recession, the credit crunch. all of thieves factors have led to slow sales for over a year now. when we say december will be good, i think it is comparatively speaking. by itself it may not be great compared to a few years ago. but compared to where we've been over the past year it's been quite good. >> what can we see in the months ahead? >> it's going to be tough especially in the first quarter of 2001, real tough still for the automakers. there is a lot of pent-up demand on the good side. people have been wanting to buy a vehicle but have held off their purchase decision because of economic reasons. there is a strong buyer's market out there, people just have to feel comfortable buying their vehicles. >> a big auto number comes out this week. could there still be surprises in terms of numbers coming in lower than a lot of people were thinking? >> we're th