Today in Crony Capitalism

the Washington Post is reporting today that the Department of Energy asked failed solar panel maker Solyndra to delay announcing layoffs and a plant closing until after the 2010 midterm elections. The Obama administration promised continued funding to Solyndra -- even though that company had vilated the terms of its funding agreement -- so long as the layoff announcement was delayed past election day. Normally, charges like this would leave me unconvinced, but given that the source is the Washington Post which supports and promotes the Obama agenda at all times, I have to conclude that there is overwhelming backup to the story.

When the Solyndra scandal first broke, I could not understand what the Obamacrats thought they got when they agreed in violation of the law to subordinate the money invested by the taxpayers to that which came from the private investors (who just happened to include a big Obama contributor). Now it appears that what the Obamacrats got was agreement from Solyndra not to disclose the impending failure of the company until after the midterm elections.

It is bad enough for Obama and his minions to use taxpayer money to make imprudent investments in private companies. It is even worse when it turns out that those companies are controlled by big contributors. It is unforgiveable, however, for Obama and the Obamacrats to use taxpayer money to induce a company to wait to disclose bad news which could hurt the Democrats until after an election. It sure sounds like using taxpayer money for a bribe.

It will be interesting to see if the DOE or the White House comes forward with any explanation for this conduct. Because the source is just a newspaper article, it is hard to know for sure what exactly is true. Still, this story is a PR nightmare for Obama and he had better have a good explanation for what happened here. Let me put it this way: Which is worse; 1)a presidential candidate is accused of propositioning a woman fifteen years ago, or 2)a president is accused of having his people use taxpayer money to bribe a private company to keep silent about bad news until after an impending election? It isn't even close. Obama owes us all an explanation.