This weekend’s Solyndra dump tells the story of an administration that was considering having Solyndra execs sit in the First Lady’s box for the January 2011 State of the Union address, until a White House staffer saw the writing on the wall:
The idea of seating Solyndra officials with first lady Michelle Obama in the Capitol during the president’s nationally televised speech came up around the same time that DOE was preparing a controversial change to the company’s $535 million federal loan guarantee, which wound up increasing the risk to taxpayers.It doesn’t end with that little anecdote. Writing at Hot Air, the timeline seemed odd to Ed Morrissey, considering the Department of Energy allowed Solyndra $75 million in new financing and a restructured deal after the January 2011 SOTU...
But Daniella Gibbs Léger, director of White House message events, batted down the idea of a State of the Union invite before it could be raised among her superiors. “Can’t do Solyndra … they’ve run into some issues recently. ,” she wrote on Jan. 5, 2011.
What it boils down to is that Solyndra was too much of a political risk to feature their execs at a State of the Union speech, but not too much of a financial risk to put taxpayers on the hook for yet again (unfortunately in DC taxpayer money is considered a renewable resource).
