White House refuses subpoena for Solyndra records

posted at 1:50 pm on November 5, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Enviro-nitwits ]   

When Barack Obama promised his would be the most transparent administration in history, he obviously meant the other type of transparency—the type most people refer to as opacity.

In keeping with this policy, his administration yesterday refused to hand over documents subpoenaed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee regarding the bankrupt solar firm Solyndra.

A letter from White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler explained that the request would place an “unreasonable burden on the president’s ability to meet his constitutional duties.” That makes sense, I suppose. The president—who, by the way, is a constitutional scholar—has already made it abundantly clear that he believes he has a duty to circumvent the Constitution when he deems such action to be in the national interest. Translation: He could be a much more effective leader if everyone would just get off his back and let him run the country by himself. (Translation of the translation: He don’t need no stinking Constitution.)

The letter further allowed as how the committee’s “extremely broad request for documents—now a subpoena—is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests,” whatever that means. Plus, the letter whined, the Obama administration had already turned over 85,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. How much more do they want, for cripesake?

How about the truth, counselor?

The Blaze quotes Committee Chairman Fred Upton as saying:

We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers. Now, we need to know the White House’s role in the Solyndra debacle in order to learn the full truth about why taxpayers now find themselves a half billion dollars in the hole. The White House could have avoided the need for subpoena authorizations if they had simply chosen to cooperate.

Speaking of “interests,” it would appear to be in the Obama administration/campaign’s best interests to make the Solyndra mess go away sooner than later. The White House and the Obama Justice Department are from out of the woods on Fast and Furious. It would seem to behoove them make at least one scandal disappear before the electoral stakes get any higher. Unless the reason they are stonewalling is because they know they can’t make Solyndra vanish.

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