• Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:15 AM

Chrysler is planning an employee rally in honor of Lee Iacocca, 83, who was widely hailed as Chrysler's savior in the early 1980s but effectively banished when he joined Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian in an abortive 1995 takeover bid for the automaker. The event will be June 26 at the company's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters.

Iacocca -- never one to withhold or sugarcoat his opinions -- tossed barbs from afar during his time in exile, notably at Robert Eaton, his successor as Chrysler CEO, and Juergen Schrempp, the Daimler boss who orchestrated the ill-fated DaimlerChrysler merger.

Chrysler's current chairman and CEO, Bob Nardelli, and co-presidents Jim Press and Tom LaSorda, apparently forgive all, as they seek to convince a still-skeptical world that Cerberus really respects Chrysler's history and wants to rebuild and grow the company -- not sell it for a quick profit. "It will make employees feel good and dealers feel good," says former Chrysler marketing chief Bud Liebler. "The dealers really revere Lee."

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