Solyndra’s ‘Green Jobs’ Included Employment for D.C. Lobbyists — Including Former Democrat Aides
25th September 2011
The Other McCain lays out some inconvenient truth.
Solyndra’s other well-connected lobbyists include green-lobbyist extraordinaire and former Appropriations staffer Steve McBee and John Kerry aide Gregg Rothschild.
Carney further reports that Solyndra’s lobbyists included Andy Quinn, former chief of staff for top Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
The lesson to be learned from this is that whenever the government is passing out money, there will be folks lining up with their hands out, and many of those will have had some part in arranging the passing-out and want to wet their beaks. One of the reasons why government procurement is so tediously bureaucratic is because of attempt to construct a system in which this sort of thing can’t happen, and the universal lesson of history is that such systems are successful only in making government procurement tediously bureaucratic. Government attracts crooks the way dogs attract fleas, and the solution is not to attempt to make the dog flea-proof (which never works and merely slows down the dog) but to periodically take steps to kill the fleas. Unfortunately, when it comes to crooks and government the success of such steps depends on the surrounding culture, and our surrounding culture leaves a lot to be desired.