The sight of Democrats joining Republicans to force testimony from Solyndra could hand more ammunition to GOP critics who have blasted the company’s flameout as “crony capitalism” and slammed White House clean-energy loan guarantees as a politically motivated failure.

But Waxman drew a bright line between a potential subpoena of the company and a July edict that Republicans issued to the Office of Management and Budget for emails related to its review of the Solyndra loan guarantee — a party-line subpoena that the Californian then lambasted as “an abuse” and “a fishing expedition” (Greenwire, July 13).

The OMB subpoena “seemed to me premature, because they were not taking advantage of what was being offered to them,” Waxman said yesterday of committee Republicans. Asked if GOP panel members were now at the point of needing to compel more information to further a legitimate investigation, he said yes.