AP’s Sept. 16 Solyndra Story, Part 2: A Pathetic ‘Both Parties Were In On It’ Attempt
Part 1 on the Associated Press's September 16 evening story (“Obama admin reworked Solyndra loan to favor donor”; saved here at my web host for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) by Matthew Daly and Jack Gillum criticized the reporters and the wire service for making it appear as if all the findings in the story were the result of original work. Two other paragraphs in the report in my opinion represent a blatant but clumsy attempt to give the impression that the bankruptcy of a major beneficiary of Department of Energy stimulus-driven loans was a bipartisan fiasco: Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign, federal election records show. Kaiser has made at least 16 visits to the president's aides since 2009, according to White House visitor logs. Madrone Partners is affiliated with the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Rob Walton, the eldest son of Sam Walton, contributed $2,500 last year to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Y'all get the point, don't you? George Kaiser, Democrat. Rob Walton, Republican. Therefore, the takeaway is supposed to be that donors to both parties were somehow involved in convincing the government to allow their January Argonaut-Madrone loan of $69 million to have senior status over all other debt, including money the company owed Uncle Sam. Even ignoring the huge difference in amounts given — Give me a break. But it's far worse than that. Rob Walton gave far more money to Democrats in 2008 when it arguably would have been far more relevant to getting Solyndra's original funding. Additionally, I couldn't even find the $2,500 contribution to the RNC the AP reporters claim occurred. Madrone Partners may be funded by the Waltons, and I don't want to pretend that they have no influence, but as seen here , the investment firm's two executives, Greg Boyd Penner and Thomas A. Patterson, are not family members. In addition, the investment firm appears to have no publicly identified board or committees, which would not be particularly unusual for such an operation. Readers will note at this Business Week link that Penner and Patterson have 115 and 39 “relationships,” respectively. These “relationships” are described at each gentleman's link as “Board Members Affiliated.” Those listed appear to be members of other boards on which Penner and Patterson serve. Patterson's
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on September 16, 2011. Filed under