Solyndra CEO Called Obama White House the “Bank of Washington”

Republicans have uncovered a damning email sent by the former CEO of an infamous, defunct solar panel company. Details below, but here's a quick primer on Solyndra, since it's been awhile since we last discussed this scandal: The loan application had been rejected under the Bush adminstration, and several Obama officials strongly opposed its approval. The deal was green-lit anyway, much to the delight of one of the company's principal investors — a man named George Kaiser, who also happens to be a major Obama fundraiser. Despite the administration's claims to the contary, records show that Kaiser visited the White House frequently in the lead-up to the loan guarantee decision. Again rejecting admonitions, Obama scheduled a presidential photo-op at Solyndra to highlight the "success" of his stimulus program. That factory is now shuttered. With a huge green mess on his hands, President Obama has attempted to suggest that Solyndra wasn't even his program, "per se." This was, and is, a lie. Flash forward to today's two new Solyndra developments. First, we have the aforementioned email, in which Solyndra's chief executive excitedly touts Obama's taxpayer loans. He refers to the White House as the "Bank of Washington:" Got all that? The Obama White House again ignored internal advice, opting to restructure a failing loan in such a way that taxpayers would be subordinated to the firm's investors (like Obama bundler George Kaiser) in bankruptcy proceedings if (when) the company finally collapsed. That collapse, by the way, that was predicted to the month by government accountants before the initial loan was approved. The current debate is whether the White House violated the law in engineering this sweetheart bailout. For what it's worth, another internal email reveals that a DOE attorney saw the restructuring as "a serious problem." This seems like a good time to quote our president: "We tried our plan, and it worked."


UPDATE - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about Solyndra at today'd briefing. According to CBS News' Mark Knoller, he ducked the question and said Congress should act to avoid the fiscal cliff: "Asked about the report on Solyndra, WH spksman Jay Carney said Congress should be passing middle class tax cuts instead." The Republican-controlled House of Representatives acted to do exactly that yesterday afternoon. (Democrats don't like the GOP's solution because it doesn't raise taxes on anyone). If Carney weren't a hack, he would (a) answer questions about the administration's Solyndra fiasco, and (b) demand action from Harry Reid on the House-passed bill, which would resolve this issue. In fairness to Reid, he's a little busy these days. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/08/02/video_harry...