Emails Show Solyndra Push Was Rahm Emanuel's Idea

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

 

It was no secret, when Emanuel was Obama's chief of staff, that "Rahm definitely wants to do this" Solyndra loan. ASSOCIATED PRESS View Enlarged Image

Scandal: The sunlight continues to expose the machinations behind the White House's support of failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra with our tax dollars, including the false claim by former White House chief of staff.

In a batch of White House emails released in a report on Solyndra by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, there's this gem: White House aide Aditya Kumar wrote to Jacob Levine of the Office of Energy and Climate Change on Aug. 19, 2009: "Feels like Rahm wants this too (barring any concerns) — POTUS (President Of The United States) Involvement (in pushing Solyndra) was Rahm's idea."

Of course, Emanuel, who helped bring the infamous "Chicago Way" of politics from the Windy City to the nation's capitol, has long denied being a mover and shaker in the Solyndra affair.

Despite being Obama's chief of staff during the administration's green energy initiative in 2009, when the Solyndra loan was finalized, Emanuel told Chicago radio station WLS 890AM at a news conference in September 2011 about a new wellness initiative that he didn't remember anything about the failed investment loan by the Department of Energy that in fact was being fast-tracked by the White House.

Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to announce the closure of the Solyndra deal on Sept. 4, 2009, and several emails show pressure from the White House to approve the loan. President Obama also visited Solyndra to tout solar energy as a job-creating energy source of the future of which Solyndra was a key part.

In an editorial last October, we noted an email reference to Emanuel that hinted at his involvement in the push to highlight Solyndra in advance of a presidential visit designed to promote Obama's program to use stimulus dollars to promote green energy.

The Aug. 17, 2009, email released in one of the administration's famous Friday document dumps showed a White House staffer referring to Ron Klein, former chief of staff for Vice President Biden, saying to an Obama scheduler: "Ron said this morning that POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants to do this?)."

In an editorial last September, we noted an Aug. 31, 2009, email in which an assistant to Emanuel wrote to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) about the upcoming Biden announcement on Solyndra and asked whether "there is anything we can help speed along on the OMB side." The director of the OMB at the time was Jack Lew, now White House chief of staff.

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"This deal is NOT ready for prime time," one OMB analyst had written in a March 10, 2009, email.

Another Aug. 31, 2009, message written by an OMB staffer and sent to Terrell P. McSweeny, Biden's domestic policy adviser, concluded: "We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews."

But the White House and Emanuel were pushing the deal.

According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials made no fewer than 20 trips to the White House, including major Solyndra investor, Obama donor and Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser.

Yet Rahm Emanuel still insists he knew nothing about all this. If you believe that, then you believe Chick-fil-A is his favorite restaurant.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

My My My, they really were busy little beaver weren't they. Everyone rushing about saving the planet and all...and of if their supports make out like bandits...well these things happen.

However one does wonder just how far under the bus the powers the be at Solyndra are willing to go?

Drip Drip Drip

 

 

[Valin]

How Did Obama Not Know About Solyndra When Most of His Staff Knew?

Jeff Dunetz

August 06, 2012

 

 

Solyndra should be a giant red flag for all voters in the upcoming presidential election. If you truly believe that President Obama had no idea that the half a billion dollar loans were a waste of taxpayer dollars, then you must believe he is a lousy manager with no line of communication to his staff, because It seems as if every top adviser, every White House staffer knew it was a horrible use of taxt payer dollars.

 

Just look at the list of people who knew all about Solyndra:

 

(Snip)

 

The bottom line is this shows the president to be an awful manager if he didn't know, or shirker of his fiduciary responsibility in using taxpayer dollars.