Weigel

Solyndra, Solyndra, Solyndra (deep breath) Solyndra

These things we know: There will always be death, taxes, and Weekly Standard covers making fun of liberal policies by portraying their adherents as hippies. Jonathan Chait has catalogued the previous examples; the new one comes on the new issue, all about Solyndra. photo(25)
I point this out not just because it’s amusing (at this point, does TWS just want to annoy Chait), but because the cover echoes the current Republican message exactly. The point of the Solyndra scandal is not that it implicates the Obama administration in any special ethical trap. Maybe it will; we’ll see what came out of the FBI’s document raid. No, the point for now is that this scandal proves, for Republicans, that all green investments are politically attackable. (I was about to say “proves they don’t work,” but too many Republicans disagree.” Last week, Cantor spokesperson Leanna Fallon explained to me that Republicans were demanding that the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program be cut in a FEMA funding package – the offset that Democrats didn’t want – because of Solyndra.
“Are Democrats going to defend this program after Solyndra?” she asked. “We’re talking about cutting a very similar loan program.”