While my friend works at GM, he does want to make it clear his comments do not represent any official position of General Motors and are simply that, his opinion.

Firstly, the whole argument made in the article you linked to just doesn't hold water. The argument made in the article reeks of ad hominem attacks on the character of the individuals to distract from the greater issue(s) at hand. Ad hominem attacks should be rejected.
Secondly, the writer of the article is ignoring the cases that didn't involve alcohol or irresponsible driving or the other known cases in which ignition switches and cylinders failed but didn't result in accidents or deaths (last count around 30 or 40 confirmed incidents and rising). Cherry-picking particular cases while ignoring the broader picture should be rejected.

The actual issue of importance in this case, regardless of who died or didn't die or whether the people who died had less than desirable character, is that GM knew there was a problem as early as 2005 or 2006 and secretly started replacing inferior parts with a design that existed right from the very beginning but was rejected due to "cost savings".
Why does my friend say secretly? Because the part number was never changed, which is the very thing that is so damning to GM in this case. Different manufacturers indicate part revisions in different ways, but any time a part is actually changed and released it ALWAYS receives a new part number or prefix or suffix with the old part number indicating a revision has taken place.
Yet, GM never changed the part number. Sorry dude, but where there's smoke, there's fire.
This is why they are recalling so many vehicles (essentially all of them), because when it comes down to it, GM doesn't know what vehicles or replacement parts sold in the dealerships or aftermarket have which components, the first design or the later design. Oops, should have changed the part number.

My friend assures me, that regardless of Congressional grandstanding, which everybody inside the company and outside recognizes the hearings as, that GM understands the entire thing is one gigantic cluster fuck and is doing everything it can to make it right. It is top priority in the company to make it right. Still, what happened is wrong regardless of whether some of the people involved in the crashes were of less reputable character than others. It is just a bad argument concerning the whole situation.