Report: Solyndra was Obsessed with Positive Media Spin, Worked Closely with Obama White House

And the scandal grows:

The media-massaging — revealed in emails released Wednesday — was especially frenzied before and after President Barack Obama’s May 23, 2010, trip to Solyndra’s California headquarters as the company sought to tamp down questions about its troubled finances, the U.S. solar industry’s ability to compete with China, and unionized workers who had to take a day off without pay during the visit.

Solyndra spokesman David Miller also did his share of glad-handing with the White House aides handling Obama’s trip.

“If you tire of the White House life and ever decide you want to move out with your best friends in [California] let me know,” Miller emailed to White House special assistant Johanna Maska the day after the visit. He added that “we could find you a great corporate gig very quickly.”

Maska, promoted this April to director of White House press advance, didn’t take Miller up on the offer.

There’s more, a lot more, read the whole story.

It’s worth taking a step back to realize just what we have here: A White House involved in helping a dying company spin (lie) to the public, and intercept negative press storie. Your tax dollars not only got poured down the rat hole directly, they were part of this nominally private company’s PR efforts. And everyone in the company seems to have known that it was doomed to fail because of its own practices. How could the White House not have known?

In that post at Hot Air, Allahpundit asks a relevant question:

Here’s what I still can’t figure out: Why would a White House that staked so much political credibility on “green jobs” want a business as risky as this to be its showcase venture early on?

Name one person in the Obama White House who has enough private sector experience to be able to judge whether Solyndra or any other company is viable. Name one. There aren’t any. And that answers Allah’s question.

(via Ace)