Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

Logo credit: Sloane

Buried within an ABC News story about today’s release of hundreds of Solyndra-related emails is a reminder of what White House Spokesman Jay Carney said at a press conference late last month after being asked about the involvement of a Department of Energy consultant and Obama fundraiser named Steve Spinner:

Carney replied: “It’s my understanding, at least with regard to the gentleman you just mentioned [Steve Spinner], that he had no connection to overseeing the loan guarantee program.”

After hearing Carney say that, your first instinct might have been to think, “Hey, Spinner must have a connection to overseeing the loan guarantee program!”

Now back to the top of the story for confirmation that you should always trust your instincts:

An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the administration’s energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife’s law firm was representing the California solar company, according to internal emails made public late Friday.

“How hard is this? What is he waiting for?” wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. “I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this.”

Many of the emails were written just days after Spinner accepted a three-page ethics agreement in which he pledged he would “not participate in any discussion regarding any application involving [his wife's law firm] Wilson [Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati].”

Prediction: At the next press conference Carney will claim that when he said Spinner had “no connection” to the loan program, he meant literally — as in that Spinner wasn’t duct taped, chained, super glued or stapled to it in any way.

If the “breathing down my neck on this” Spinner references from the White House and Veep’s office was in email or memo form, we might learn about it on a subsequent Friday afternoon document drop & dash.

Also, it isn’t difficult to spot a party planner who has access to piles of other people’s money:

Many of the emails surround his efforts to coordinate plans for either President Obama or Vice President Biden to announce it as the administration’s first loan approval — one that he repeatedly notes will create clean energy jobs.

It is Spinner, for instance, who pushes for a “big event” with “golden shovels, bulldozers, hardhats, etc.”

It wasn’t just a shovel ready job — it was a golden shovel ready job. At this point though, the whistling robots were just a gleam in his eye.

Politico has a story today about the “*#~@ show,” and there’s lots more Solyndra and Solyndra-related background here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe