Steven Rattner, committee czar, has money and political savvy, but no experience in auto making.

The co-founder of a private equity group with long-standing political ties to the Democratic party is joining the U.S. Treasury Department to head the team that will recommend whether or not Chrysler and General Motors should continue to receive government loans or be liquidated.

Steven Rattner is now Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury and no longer Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group, a private investment firm he co-founded. Quadrangle has more than $6 billion of assets under management, and invests in media and communications companies.

Rattner will advise Secretary Timothy Geithner regarding “a variety of economic and financial matters” and “will lead the team” advising Secretary Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers on the automobile sector.

Last week, Geithner and Summers convened the official designees to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry to discuss recently submitted restructuring plans from Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corporation. The Task Force is a cabinet-level group that includes the Secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor, and Energy. It will also include the Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA Administrator, and the Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change.

At that time of the initial meeting, it was said the Task Force would be led by Treasury Secretary Geithner and NEC Director Summers. The Rattner appointment appears to be a change of that position, but given the controversies surrounding other Obama Administration appointments, it’s possible that background checks took longer than initially anticipated.

While not the car czar originally proposed last year, Rattner, who has no automotive experience, at least potentially provides a single point of contact for auto makers. The result of last week’s meeting was to schedule another one of unknown date where initial Task Force member recommendations, based on analysis in their areas of expertise, will be presented to the cabinet. This will likely start a long negotiation where tax payer, corporate, union and political interests are traded off. Presumably this will be done behind closed doors.