Whip Kevin McCarthy: Secretary Chu needs to scoot
posted at 8:30 pm on November 18, 2011 by Tina Korbe
In congressional testimony yesterday, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu claimed he had no idea how shaky Solyndra was — nor the solar industry, in general. He pushed a $535 million loan to the company because he thought it would create jobs and displace oil, he said. Much of that testimony wasn’t exactly accurate. The White House had plenty of warning about the solar industry collapse — and the job creation claim was always sketchy.
But even if every single word Chu spoke was true, his testimony does little to shore up confidence in his decision-making skills. (Nor does the fact that he’s still firm in his commitment to investment in solar energy, as evidenced by his trip today to a solar energy facility in Colorado.) So, it’s really no surprise that at least a couple of politicians have begun to call for his ouster. Scribe’s Lachlan Markay reports:
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Friday said Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s lack of knowledge about the problems plaguing now-bankrupt Solyndra demonstrates poor management skills that preclude him from being an effective Cabinet-level official.
“I would look to have somebody else manage” the Department of Energy, McCarthy said on a Friday conference call. “Things were going on that he did not know about,” he added. “That’s not the way you should be managing.”
Those comments echo remarks by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s lead investigator. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) said Thursday that Chu should be replaced.
“I think the secretary is unaware of so many things that have happened that would question his financial ability and his management of very complex corporations,” Stearns said. “He probably should be replaced by the president,” he added.
Given the way the president has responded to the resounding chorus of calls for Eric Holder’s resignation, it’s doubtful he’ll replace Chu. Then again, while Chu didn’t admit to improper motives for the loan to Solyndra, he did take full responsibility for approving it. That’s far more than Eric Holder has done with the Fast and Furious scandal. Instead, Holder has stuck to the line that he didn’t know about the controversial gunwalking tactics an agency within his own department employed.
Either way, it all redounds to Obama’s discredit. He sure does know how to pick ‘em.
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Part of the democrat money laundering cycle of life.
tom daschle concerned on March 26, 2013 at 4:44 PM
Mismanaged? No. It was a way to funnel money to donk cronies, some of it which came back in campaign donations.
Blake on March 26, 2013 at 4:46 PM
Obama just gave the middle east less and we are going to get peace…
No seriously…
Why are you laughing?
Electrongod on March 26, 2013 at 4:47 PM
Let’s follow the hole further down, how many of these outfits are fun by people who donated generously to Bark’s campaign.
Hope and Change – Same as the last guy but delivered by the cool black dude.
Bishop on March 26, 2013 at 4:49 PM
Not a mistake; by design.
Midas on March 26, 2013 at 4:49 PM
The left funds itself with taxpayer money. They’ve been doing it for years.
If the public ever woke up they’d chase every democrat off the continent, maybe even off the planet.
darwin on March 26, 2013 at 4:49 PM
Who are those 3 women, or 3 men, in that picture?
Schadenfreude on March 26, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Also known as payoffs, bribes, thievery, white collar crime, corruption….and kick backs to help fund the Obama Presidential campaign….
Will anyone go to jail?
albill on March 26, 2013 at 4:52 PM
In the real world, people lose their jobs and/or go to jail for this.
rjh on March 26, 2013 at 4:53 PM
But…………think of all those “sustainable” jobs.
Maybe the IRS can consult with the DOE on a Monty Python remake. I mean, that IRS Star Trek film was da bomb.
BacaDog on March 26, 2013 at 4:54 PM
When you see it all laid out in a chart like that it looks so cool and so very possible. How could it not work?
Oh, wait… I see the flaw. They left off the part where cronies and crooks siphon off big money to their friends and relatives in exchange for votes and the company goes bankrupt after paying out huge bonuses to top management. I think that would be a major part of the green middle section. It would dwarf the rest of the chart making it impossible to see. Probably best if they leave it out, you know, for readability.
Lily on March 26, 2013 at 4:54 PM
That’s just gay…!
Seven Percent Solution on March 26, 2013 at 4:55 PM
Julia, Julian and Julikey repesenting the LBG faction that wants to go to work and get married.
DanMan on March 26, 2013 at 4:56 PM
The problem is the left funds too much of the voting public with taxpayer money, enough so that they can keep being voted in over and over again.
hawkeye54 on March 26, 2013 at 4:57 PM
Screw you!
Not literally, I mean, you know because we’re both…well…guys..so…yeah.
Bishop on March 26, 2013 at 4:57 PM
It’s what Mitt Romney said, Obama knows how to pick the Losers!
Fleuries on March 26, 2013 at 4:58 PM
We’re calling it “mismanagement”, are we?
“Malfeasance” might be a better word but that’s just me.
My wife thinks “theft by crony rent-seeking donors” is the description a truly impartial observer would use, but she hastens to add that she herself is not impartial and she would rather find some description that involves criminal retribution.
MTF on March 26, 2013 at 5:01 PM
We gotta fire that watchdog guy before he does something else politically inconvenient!!!
gordo on March 26, 2013 at 5:02 PM
Sorta like that pair of schemers in “The Producers”. Suck up money for projects that are expected to fail, and the investment loss is simply shrugged off with the the hopes of a payoff evaporated…..meanwhile, the shyster politicians and executives quietly expand their wealth at taxpayer expense.
hawkeye54 on March 26, 2013 at 5:03 PM
When I saw the screencap, I thought it was another gay- and lesbian-marriage thread.
On a closer look, I have to ask whether those are Obama’s new gay-marriage czar and lesbian-marriage czar.
Say, at what point to Americans decide enough is enough and storm the White House with tar and feathers?
BuckeyeSam on March 26, 2013 at 5:03 PM
substitute The Keystone Pipeline for “The President’s plan” in first sentence they use to justify the trust and everything is covered and saves $2 bil too.
DanMan on March 26, 2013 at 5:05 PM
This post isn’t about gay marriage. Erika’s pink slip is probably in the mail.
steebo77 on March 26, 2013 at 5:06 PM
I always wondered what ever happened to all the Amway people.
No one makes a chart that shows imaginary, but totally plausible to the gullible, profit quite like Amway people.
It’s like a machine. You put your money in. Get everyone you know to put their money in, and viola! You all get rich!
Lily on March 26, 2013 at 5:08 PM
Were any of these startups owned by a gay person?
*just trying to keep today’s theme alive*
Bishop on March 26, 2013 at 5:13 PM
If the OBOZOBOTS admit to $1.5 BILLION in waste – then it must be more than $15 BILLION, given bureaucrat math.
TeaPartyNation on March 26, 2013 at 5:15 PM
What difference, at this point, does it make?
BobMbx on March 26, 2013 at 5:17 PM
Next week’s AllahP theme: Metrosexuals
BobMbx on March 26, 2013 at 5:18 PM
DOE…one of my top 3 that should be shuttered immediately.
RedInMD on March 26, 2013 at 5:18 PM
Color me surprised. He only found 1.5 billion in mismanaged funds. I could probably find far more than that with out the cost of funding his IG department.
chemman on March 26, 2013 at 5:21 PM
10x is to small of an error. They are usually off by 100x or greater.
chemman on March 26, 2013 at 5:22 PM
Um, President 0? That’s not your money.
Oh course, the residents of Cypress recently expressed that same viewpoint, and look where it got them.
iurockhead on March 26, 2013 at 5:23 PM
Oh, oh, can we take torches, and pitchforks? I love pitchforks.
iurockhead on March 26, 2013 at 5:26 PM
And rails. Don’t forget the rails to run them out of town on. I am sure we can find an obsolete, over budget, high-speed railway that can spare a few rails.
Lily on March 26, 2013 at 5:29 PM
oooh pretty pictures…..
Forget the fact that the profitable oil and gas companies will have less money for Research on Long Term Projects
Ann on March 26, 2013 at 5:31 PM
Still, any dude with crazy hair like that can get things squared away.
Bishop on March 26, 2013 at 5:38 PM
For all those Obama adorers who think he’s just so cool, I’d really like to know what goes through their minds when they see a picture like this–especially blacks.
“Man, those are some creepy-lookin’ crackers Obama has to hang out with to stay in the White House.”
BuckeyeSam on March 26, 2013 at 5:41 PM
All Obama has to do is to tax the profits of all the “green” companies he has given/invested $Billions in. He’ll have that lousy $2 Billion “Energy Security Trust” fund that he wants in no time!
/Sarcasm Off
RJL on March 26, 2013 at 5:44 PM
That almost NEVER happens…. *choke*
44Magnum on March 26, 2013 at 5:45 PM
The DOE spent 1.5 billion to convince us that living in mud huts, cooking on dung fires and wiping our arse with our hands or tree leaves is where we should be heading. If it’s good enough for obama’s family in kenya it’s good enough for us.
Of course, a couple of million of that went to flying around that creature that is married to the kenyan to exotic foreign 5 star resorts with 500 of her closest friends.
acyl72 on March 26, 2013 at 6:00 PM
That’s only how much has been found so far
RdLake on March 26, 2013 at 6:03 PM
Actually, IIRC, the rails originally associated with this concept were fence rails, split wood, rough-hewed and splintery, perfect for making contact with the soft and tender derrieres of miscreant politicians. :)
hawkeye54 on March 26, 2013 at 6:04 PM
I think I’ve heard this before… hang on.
Obama needs to go to Gambler’s Anonymous doesn’t he?
He’s sounding like someone with a problem… should we try to schedule an intervention?
Pretending he’s an “investor” doesn’t really help him with his problem; we’ve got to admit he has a problem… then we can try to solve it.
gekkobear on March 26, 2013 at 6:06 PM
Not if the recipients of those tax dollars are also GENEROUS DONORS to Democratic Party members.
GarandFan on March 26, 2013 at 6:10 PM
Who is going to be held responsible?
NO ONE!
It’s Political Money Laundering at it’s most awful.
MissTwiLies Run & Hide CYA
(Misleading, Twists and Lies)
Fight the baster with your dieing breath.
jpcpt03 on March 26, 2013 at 6:31 PM
Which is pretty much the concept of “investing” taxpayer dollars on such schemes. It really is irrelevant whether the scheme will actually work or be profitable, and it makes the greenie dem voters happy that “something” is being done to try to wean us away from traditional fossil fuel energy sources.
hawkeye54 on March 26, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Remember the contracter set fire to a nuclear submarine so he can ‘go home early’, resulting in near 400 million damage?
Recently he just got sentenced.
Same treatment for these DOE employees, since they are actual gubmint employees not contracters, double the sentence.
Sir Napsalot on March 26, 2013 at 6:55 PM
Odd… whenever I hear words like ‘investments’, ‘revenue’ and ‘fairness’ from political circles, it sets off my warning radar. Hmmm.
ghostwalker1 on March 26, 2013 at 7:05 PM
The chart should be:
Cutting Edge Technologies
New Jobs
Revenue created by people with jobs
dmart81 on March 26, 2013 at 8:57 PM
…recipients?
KOOLAID2 on March 26, 2013 at 10:25 PM
Neanderthals.
Geez, we spend millions and millions of dollars on Anthropology and there’s living examples right in front of us.
Any anyone who thinks we did not evolve from the primates has not seen Moochelle in a designer dress.
acyl72 on March 27, 2013 at 7:22 AM
Stimulus money mismanaged? Not possible. Sheriff Joe made sure this wouldn’t happen.
taznar on March 27, 2013 at 9:51 AM
Well played, Erika. Very well played.
SomeCallMeJohn on March 27, 2013 at 10:30 AM
$1.5 billion is all???
Are you SURE it isn’t $1.5 Billion per month???
Have you properly SUBTRACTED from the ‘benefits’:
* Destruction of American Jobs in existing successful and economical energy exploration and production. Destruction of American jobs via the “Permitorium” and foot-dragging on all energy sources which are not preferred by bureaucrats: regardless of the value of these sources to the American public.
* Destruction of Environment by forcing extra tons of hazardous materials used in construction of windmills and solar cells into the environment. Destruction from increased hazardous waste disposal, because the windmills and solar cells also have a much shorter life than conventional power plants.
* Destruction of Low-cost energy enjoyed by American families by a dysfunctional full-court press to force use of high-cost, impractical sources. Further destruction by forcing existing low-cost energy users to subsidize power lines and production to support these high-cost sources.
* Destruction and retarding of new technology such as Fracking by government interference.
landlines on March 27, 2013 at 2:47 PM