Secretary Chu will take “full responsibility” today for the government’s decision to throw a half-billion’s worth of taxpayer money into a failing energy company, despite its own watchdogs’ recommendations (and the government’s decision to pressure Solyndra into not reporting layoffs until after the ’10 midterms) – while at the same time insisting that nothing untoward occurred. In other words, Chu will not take any kind of responsibility at all.
But this is not about ‘responsibility.’ This is merely the next step in the resignation game. Chu will be grilled today on this topic:
In advance of Thursday’s hearing, investigators with the Republican led committee released the latest batch of internal emails it has reviewed. Among them were emails that suggested that Energy officials asked the company to delay layoffs at its California facility until after the Nov. 2 midterm elections.
The two congressmen leading the investigation, Reps. Fred Upton (Mich.) and Cliff Stearns (Fla.) released a statement saying they hope Chu’s testimony will “shed light on key questions about the decision-making inside the Department of Energy and the role of other agencies and officials, from the Office of Management and Budget to the west wing of the White House.”
Secretary Chu will then be expected to beat his breast a bit. Then the President will express his ‘full confidence’ in his ’embattled’ Secretary, which will be the signal for Republicans to release still more damaging revelations on the subject. Shortly thereafter, Chu will announce his resignation, in order to ‘spend more time with his family.’ End result: one Energy Secretary gone and a ‘tarnished’ administration.
And probably a Republican establishment that might be just a little confused about why the base isn’t happier about this. I mean, Chu’s gone, right? It’s always great to force out a Cabinet member – and there’s limits to what can be done in this sort of thing, anyway. I mean, what does the base expect, jail time?
Well, increasingly… yes, that is what they’re expecting.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: Oops! Via Hot Air Headlines.
Watch here (choose Solyndra Hearing.
“I mean, what does the base expect, jail time?”
I would say it’s more a dim, frustrated hope than any kind of expectation. We know more or less what we can actually expect from Republican establishment types: somewhere between jack and squat.
Jailing them would just land them in Congressional seats upon release.
@Oyster: And Jack left town (NSFW).
Jail time? Not that it’s even a remote possibility, but the ‘jail’ such people wind up in is almost completely symbolic, certainly not Sing Sing or Alcatraz, so no, I do not want ‘jail’ time. I want a firing squad.