« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

20 Days and Counting: How Long Will Obama Keep America in the Dark on Solyndra?

It’s been 20 days since the FBI raided the headquarters of Solyndra, the bankrupt stimulus-back solar energy company.  For twenty days the President’s advisers have decided to keep him in the dark about what led the company to squander $535 million of taxpayer money.

But there was one briefing about the mismanaged loan program—in October 2010, that is.  Yes, news broke yesterday that the President’s advisers—namely Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and then-National Economic Council Director Larry Summers—warned the President that funds might land in the hands of unworthy companies.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, Geithner and Summers feared the selection process was not sufficiently rigorous.  In their view, that meant stimulus money might end up in the hands of companies unable to pay it back.  They took their concerns directly to President Obama.  He listened to their warnings, but the loan program continued.  Less than a year later, Solyndra went bankrupt.

Americans deserve answers.  It’s time for the President to take responsibility. It’s bad enough that his advisers haven’t briefed him about Solyndra’s bankruptcy, but it’s even worse that the President has not demanded answers.  Instead of spending his time leading campaign rallies in chanting “pass this bill,” he should tell the American people why he passed the buck.

Then there’s a bigger question: How many more Solyndras are there?  To how many other failing companies did the White House funnel money?  The President must learn the lessons of this latest stimulus failure, lest he be doomed to repeat them.

On GOP.com, you can keep track of how long it’s been since those FBI raids—and how long President Obama has avoided answering the tough questions.

COMMENTS

  • bigredone

    When, oh, when will the GOP Senators and Congressmen put a stop to the spending?

    Our guys and gals have failed to use Senate rules at their disposal to force a stop to the profligate spending. I agree Solyndra is a disgrace, but it is but a symptom of the disease.

    Stop spending now!

  • jaykali

    You keep people in the dark as long as possible to buy time to figure something out. There isn’t anything ‘good’ that the WH can come up with as a defense so I would suspect they are figuring out a gameplan on how to get through this scandal. I think it will devour them, it’s so bad that even the MSM networks are reporting on it and not in a ‘defensive’-mode like “..well this is clearly bush’s fault” type of reporting.

    It is a major scandal and the more that comes to light the worse it is for Obama. You now have the big 3 scandals, Fast & Furious, Solyndra & LightSquared.

    Fast & Furious alone should be devastating. Imagine if Fast & Furious happened under a REPUBLICAN president, my God we would have liberals foaming at the mouth. Our government is selling guns to drug dealers in Mexico?!

    But since it’s a Democratic president obviously they are covering it as little as possible. I would really like to see the Republican candidates say more on these things to keep them in the news. Republicans are too busy arguing over an f-ing HPV vaccination that NEVER happened. There is so much low hanging fruit to go after on Obama it’s rediculous – I can imagine the soundbites we’d be hearing on the morning news after these debates if they would attack Obama on some of these big issues.

    • tjpeco

      The GOP actually DO something about it? All I see is Issa grandstanding over the whole thing. No action. Fast and Furious needs a special prosecutor, so does the Solyndra scandal. The media isn’t paying attention to it because the GOP doesn;t make enough hay over it. Remember Rush’s words the media only pays attention to the seriousness of the charge, not the nature of the evidence.

      How about the House Republicans actually make a resolution to STOP any future government stimulus expenditures – period. Eliminate future Solyndra scandals by keeping the government from picking the winners and losers.

      • freentn

        BO and his criminal cohorts indicted until the democRats re-nominate him. The last thing the Republicans want to do is hand the nomination over to Hillary.

        If BO somehow gets re-elected in 2012 he can be impeached and indicted immediately thereafter. If Hillary got elected, then how could the Republicans remove her from office?

        If BO selects Hillary as his VP and steals the election then we’ve got real problems because then BO can simply resign and then President Hillary would pardon him. Of course, BO and his criminal cohorts could still be indicted in multiple State Courts but then things will really get messy in that event.

    • macbookben

      …who got their big career boosts from reporting on The Iran-Contra scandal ready to do some more investigative reporting on Fast and Furious? Hello? 60 Minutes, are you there?

    • freentn

      and not each fellow Conservative Republicans like Gov Perry.

    • jtlfromfredmd

      for some fireworks. We can’t wait any longer. If you are a cherished member of the liberal MSM and you KNOW that this story is gaining traction in the conservative media, why would you choose to ignore it? There can only be two answers: you’re either extremely dim-witted and stupid OR you really don’t care because you know that most Americans who watch Dancing With the Stars really don’t give a hoot. Therefore, you’ll side with them. I think I know the answer to this one. I pray that all 3 scandals will be seriously investigated so as to hamstring this president and his cronies and stop them from doing anymore damage.

      • freentn

        will be indicted in multiple jurisdictions after the democRats re-nominate him.

      • jaykali

        I mean when you have Jon Stewart ridiculing Obama you know it’s bad..

        The difference is if this were a Republican scandal the MSM would be calling for investigations and asking for peoples heads. The way the report this is “wow this looks bad for the Obama administration” type of tone..

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    Until it goes away, if possible. Impeachment would be nice, but if there’s nothing coming that way from fast and furious and other things then there’s likely not going to be much coming from this either as the msm yawns and pretends nothing’s wrong with their nerO’s fiddling around.

  • trutexan

    Why isn’t the chair of the RNC posting something to the other Republican members of congress to get off their duffs and DO something about it?

    Mr. Priebus, you’re not a reporter telling us something we don’t already suspect or know. Please stay in your swimlane.

  • kmpesq

    If I go and buy you a gun and you use that gun to commit a crime, in a lot of states, I can be prosecuted as an accomplice. If I knew you were going to commit that crime, then I could be criminally liable as a conspirator to that crime.

    With regard to Fast & Furious, it appears that the ATF, under the direction of Eric Holder’s Justice Department, allowed guns to be sold to Mexican Drug Cartels and one of those guns was used to murder a Border Patrol Agent in Arizona. Now, given the above, it would seem that, under the law, Eric Holder may very well be an accomplice to murder, at least enough to go before a grand jury for possible indictment.

    Therefore, as Holder is unlikely to appoint an investigator to investigate his Justice Department, I would encourage the Attorney General of Arizona to seek a criminal indictment against Eric Holder and the ATF/FBI officials, who allowed those guns to be sold to the cartels, as accomplices to the murder of the Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

    Certainly, there would be jurisdictional issues, because we are talking about the murder of a federal law enforcement officer. On the other hand, the murder took place within Arizona state territory. Further, it appears that the Justice Department is waiving its right to prosecute, so I think as long as there is no concurrent criminal proceeding on the federal level, I believe that Arizona might be able to sustain a criminal prosecution for the murder. Not sure if this would ultimately hold water, but I’d like to see the Arizona AG give it a shot, because I believe that its the only way to get to the bottom of this and get the facts out for public consumption.

  • johnt

    Oh the poor innocent soul. This is a joke, right?
    As to the twenty days and the documents, probably taken on a one way journey to basement C at DOJ where the shredders are kept, under the watchful eye of Holder, a leftists idea of a good AG.

  • rightwingmom52

    know that we want them to keep the pressure on with regard to Solyndra as well as Fast & Furious. I’d also like to see an investigation into why the DOJ is targeting Gibson Guitars, but all I hear from our TN senators is silence. Doesn’t do much to inspire confidence.

    I don’t care if Obama’s staff keeps him in the dark, but the days of keeping U.S. citizens in the dark are over. We don’t get our news from liberal media anymore, and our elected officials can no longer hide from their votes or their choice to sit on their hands and do nothing.

  • http://www.twitter.com/AWG9_yoyo yoyo

    What does AZ law have to say about it, and could AZ bring Holder, et al. up on charges for accomplice after-the-fact?

    Someone call Gov. Brewer! and do wait until AFTER he is nominated to indict him as well!

  • runner12

    I know that a letter was sent requesting a Special Prosecutor for the Fast & Furious scandal. This is a good first step. But the pressure needs to continue on the GOP to continue to push for investigations.

    This Solyndra debacle gets worse and worse for the WH. Today they were forced to admit that they were warned prior to the loan that the company was insolvent. So why do it? More investigation is needed and if the FBI is dragging its feet, a special prosecutor needs to be assigned to this case as well.