What’s the most laughably outlandish angle of this story?

• That the U.S. Government is loaning Nobel laureate Al Gore and investment bank Kleiner Perkins $529 million to build a car, and -
• It’s a hybrid electric sports model, and -
• It will cost $89,000 a copy, and -
• It will be made in Finland.

We’re also loaning Tesla Motors $465 million to build a $109,000 British electric roadster. That’s almost a cool billion, and it’s going to well-heeled Democratic contributors.

WSJ: Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan

The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.

“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.”

Not everyone who has applied has walked away with such generous backing:

Some companies that have been turned down for loans from DOE say they did not get much feedback from the department about their applications. O. John Coletti, president of EcoMotors International of Troy, Mich., said his company applied for a $20 million loan from the agency last December, and last month got a one-page rejection letter from the loan program’s director, Lachlan Seward. EcoMotors’ lead investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner and a longtime campaign contributor to Republicans and Democrats alike. …

Scott Redmond, CEO of XP Vehicles Inc., said he met with DOE officials twice in Washington after applying for a $40 million loan to develop a $15,000 to $25,000 hybrid, and that both times he was told his application looked good. Since receiving a rejection letter from DOE in August, Redmond said, he has been unable to get a full explanation as to why his request was turned down.

H/T The Daily Beast

A lot of money. As in, his net worth has increased fifty-fold, and that’s not a typo. Gateway Pundit revisits some commentary by Pro Patria about Al Gore’s relationship with Big Green (a good name, that):

So just what has Al Gore gained from his Big Green escapades? According to public disclosure information, Gore was worth somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in 2000. Not quite eight years later, Gore is estimated to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. While I ordinarily would applaud such financial gains from such a short period of time, I can’t help but to question just how it happened. When you look out at what Al Gore has done, it’s evident that he figured out on a way to capitalize on the creation of Big Green while becoming the official doomsday prophet that has helped to build Big Green into the monetary powerhouse that it has become.

That post is from 2007, and the number it mentions was also reported here and here (neither unsympathetically, which is the reason why they were chosen): Gateway Pundit is bringing it up again because Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) had some pointed questions to Mister Gore on his business relationships. Human Events had ten more, all of which should be asked by his supporters themselves, and none of which will be.  Note that Blackburn did ask some of these questions; also note that Gore evaded them, complete with that patented “the fools denied my greatness!  But I’ll show them!  I’ll show them ALL!” smirk that he reserves for situations like this.  I have to admit; if this is Gore’s revenge scenario for America it’s going well.

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