The U.S. Senate took on the role of Christmas Grinch for autoworkers when it failed on Thursday to pass a $14 billion rescue package for Detroit’s three major car manufacturers.

Attention now turns to the Bush administration’s Treasury Department, who Reid and other supporters of a bailout said should dip into the $700 billion fund Congress created to help Wall Street firms and banks, and lend automakers the money they need to avoid bankruptcy and save millions of jobs.

The Senate late on Thursday came only a few “yes” votes short of the 60 needed to block a filibuster on the bailout bill, effectively killing any chance of Congress providing a lifeline to the financially drowning automakers this year.

“It’s going to be a very, very bad Christmas for a lot of people based on what takes place here tonight,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told his colleagues before the vote. “It’s over with.”

Looks like a new War Between The States is developing and the low paid South is winning.