You know how
every time another Republican opens his mouth about why he thinks
Solyndra's failure should become a big political scandal, it turns out that he lobbied on behalf of his political supporters to get the exact same sorts of loan guarantees as Solyndra?
Well, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa—who is one of those Republicans—says their hypocrisy is totally okay:
Issa defended Republican lawmakers who sought the loan guarantees on behalf of constituents.
"Members of Congress will always ask for money from whatever pool is available to help their constituents," Issa said. "The question is—and Solyndra is an example—is the process one in which it is truly competitive and is without political interference."
The problem here is that Solyndra isn't an example of influence-peddling, and neither is the program that funded its loan guarantee. If Republicans believed that either of those things were true, then they wouldn't be spending so much time lobbying for loan guarantees for companies in their districts. Of course, as Issa basically concedes, Republicans actually like the loan guarantee program. That's why a Republican Congress created the program in 2005, and that's why George W. Bush signed it into law.
Now, they are just playing politics, but the facts don't add up to a scandal. The Bush administration selected Solyndra to be a candidate for the DOE's green energy loan guarantee program and tried to fast-track approval of its application in January 2009 before Obama's inauguration. That effort failed, but civil servants approved the loan in March of that year. Republicans claim that one of Solyndra's investors was also a major Obama donor, but that's not true.
Meanwhile, the fact that Darrell Issa himself sought loan guarantees for a firm backed by a major political contributor doesn't mean he's corrupt—it just means he's a hypocrite. Privately, I'm sure he understands the value of supporting the green energy industry, not because I have any particular faith in him, but because that's what he's said every time he's privately sought support for an energy company in his district. And if that's not the case, shouldn't Darrell Issa's committee be investigating ... Darrell Issa?
