Inside the Solyndra Leak Fest
Sunnier day: Obama at Solyndra in 2010. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
My colleague Amy Harder has a look at the strategic leaking House Republicans and the Obama Administration are doing in an attempt to win a political advantage from the collapse of the stimulus-backed solar company Solyndra.
After Republicans released a string of e-mails designed to make the administration look bad for providing Solyndra with federal assistance, Democrats fired back yesterday with letters Republicans wrote asking the Energy Department to give their favored clean-energy companies similar federal help.
Here's a look at those letters.
Over the past week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has strategically released other e-mails to The Washington Post and ABC News suggesting the administration tried to rush approval of the $535-million loan guarantee the Energy Department awarded Solyndra, and also that White House officials feared the political fallout of Solyndra's bankruptcy. ...On Wednesday, Bloomberg News cited a letter showing that House Oversight and Investigations Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked for federal help for clean-energy projects in his state. (Issa's committee holds Thursday's hearing titled, "How Obama's Green Energy Agenda is Killing Jobs.") The White House, the Energy Department, and the Democratic National Committee then e-mailed other reporters offering copies of the letter.Reporters also were sent letters showing House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., Sen. David Vitter, R-La., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, once sought federal help for clean-energy projects in their districts or states.
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