President Obama promised to have the most transparent and ethical administration in our country’s history. His White House web page on ethics claims they have “the strongest ethics standards in U.S. government history.” It may be true, but having high standards means nothing if you consistently fail to meet those standards.
Follow along on the latest Solyndra revelations:
Steve Spinner was a major fundraiser for the Obama Campaign in 2008. He became a loan adviser for the Dept. of Energy after President Obama took office. He was married to a partner at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini, which was representing Solyndra in its loan application. He had signed an “ethics agreement” in which he said he would not engage in negotiations about the loan for the company.
There you go. A fine example of the Obama Administration’s “strongest ethics standards” in action.
So, what did Mr. Spinner do with regard to the Solyndra loan?
Yet throughout Solyndra’s loan process, Spinner worked hard to defend the company from criticisms inside the government, including questions from climate czar Carol Browner’s office. He pushed to get a final decision on approving the loan in August.
“How f***ing hard is this?” Spinner wrote on Aug. 28 an another department official. “What is he waiting for” Will we have it by the end of the day?”
Do those sound like the words of a man who had recused himself from working on the Solyndra loan process?
Also revealed in today’s latest information dump on Solyndra is an e-mail which may prove to be a smoking gun proving the high-level interest in the Solyndra loan approval. According to the Washington Post, e-mails show President Obama and then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pushing for answers on the status of the Solyndra stimulus hand-out:
“Ron said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this ?),” one White House staffer told an Obama scheduler on Aug. 17, 2009.
This is particularly damning for Mr. Emanuel considering he was asked last month about his involvement with the Solyndra loan and his answer was perfectly Clintonian: (via WLS)
And the drip, drip, drip from Solyndra continues.