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for his “Whac-a-Mole” approach to ignition switch–related lawsuits question! In the hearing, GM’s general counsel, Michael P. Millikin, came under criticism for his failure to act and—in the words of subcommittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)—for his “Whac-a-Mole” approach to ignition switch–related lawsuits, even though engineers at GM were aware of the defect. McCaskill twice questioned whether Millikin should still have his job and why CEO Mary Barra has not fired him. for his “Whac-a-Mole” approach to ignition switch–related lawsuits "Whac-a-Mole" in the context, I think, means that whenever Gm motors have ignition switch-related lawsuits issues, they called Millikin. Millikin always acts for the company under criticism. Is it right?

Answers · 7

3
Whack-a-mole is an arcade game. The player has a padded mallet, and plastic "moles" pop up from I think 9 different holes. The goal is to smack the mole down before it ducks back into its hole. Basically it's mindless reaction -- no planning, no strategy. The mole pops up, and you try to hit it. Having a "whack-a-mole approach" implies to me that someone is mindlessly reacting to problem after problem, without solving anything. In this context, I understand it to mean that Milliken has his hands full dealing with lawsuit after lawsuit that pops up, and he is spending all his energy reacting to them rather than solving the underlying problem. I hope that helps!
2
It means "to suppress each lawsuit as it happened". Whac-a-Mole is an old mechanical game arcade game; see this explanation in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole. The goal of the game is to hit and suppress the moles as soon as they appear.
1
Whac-a-mole is a game where you hit little plastic moles with a hammer when they pop up from the table. The "whac-a-mole approach" means that he dealt with issues quickly as soon as they came up.

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