Darrell Issa Attended Fundraiser Held By Solyndra Lobbyist

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) attended a fundraiser co-hosted by a lobbyist for Solyndra, the now-bankrupt solar energy company Issa is investigating as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

According to his hometown paper, Issa was featured on the invitation to a fundraiser in Washington for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign co-hosted by Alex Mistri of the Glover Park Group, a lobbyist for Solyndra. A spokesman said Issa attended the event in order to support the former Massachusetts governor, who he endorsed for president.

The Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported on the event held Wednesday morning at the American Trucking Association office with nearly two dozen members of Congress on the guest list. The Obama administration granted Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009, and the company went bankrupt this September. Solyndra was to pay Mistri $20,000 for his lobbying services; however, the Glover Park Group said that the firm will have to eat the bill.

Issa said that he would launch a "broad" investigation into loan guarantee programs in late September. "There's been this attitude that government can weigh in with loan guarantees and money and pick winners, specific company winners, and losers," he said in a recent C-SPAN interview. "We see that as a backdoor easy way to end up with corruption in government."

Comments

[marilyn 63]

05:56 PM on 11/04/2011

it just seems funny Issa investigating anyone. first he's a Republican and it's Issa of all people investigating and its the tea-Republicans taking up time with zilch. he can start investigating himself and the tea Republicans and lobbyist Koch brothers influence in our elections. THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TO GO IN 2012.

[kokobell616]

06:39 PM on 10/29/2011

There seems to be no limit to the depths these republicans will go to corrupt the federal government in an attempt to show how broken the federal government is.

[MNUSA]

06:34 PM on 10/29/2011

Is there a politician alive that you can't connect to some shady operator? Politicians need money and sleazebags know that a few dollars puts them in the same room. Until we have publicly funded elections, nothing will change. Issa is another story though. I was home for a while and watched C-Span. Democrats would try to have hearings about serious issues and he acted like a junior high school boy at the back of the classroom.

[hagagaga]

03:26 PM on 10/28/2011

They all know each other in the Capitol and on K Street. There has always been a guy (and usually a few more) who had friends working with a group that he was claiming to be against. That's the way it is in US politics. This does not surprise me by any measure.

[ronniesbrain]

02:43 PM on 10/28/2011

Can somebody please explain to me what a convicted felon is doing running an investagation into a company he also has ties to,

[rgilley]

08:57 AM on 10/28/2011

How long are people who elected this criminal going to allow him to make a mockery of our democracy? Certainly we are a empire in decline to allow these rigth wing fascist Republicans to extort our freedom and democracy from us!

Extortion Politics: Koch Brothers Operative Confirms That Tea Party in Congress Is Not There to Negotiate
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2011/08/03/extortion-politics-tea-party-astroturfer-confirms-that-tea-baggers-in-congress-are-not-there-to-negotiate/

Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/06/nation/la-na-koch-brothers-20110206

Koch Industries Instructed 50K Employees How They Were Supposed To Vote In 2010 Elections
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/20/koch-coerced-employees-during-the-2010-midterm-elections/

[JoannainPA]

08:54 AM on 10/28/2011

Geez Louise. Maddening.

[medic628]

07:57 AM on 10/28/2011

Investigating on one end and hand out on the other. What a guy?

[rgilley]

08:57 AM on 10/28/2011

He's been doing it for decades.

[mea25]

03:08 AM on 10/28/2011

Icky: you got some 'splaining to do.

[madisonlike60]

01:57 AM on 10/28/2011

I'm pretty sure Issa thinks he is above reproach.

[rgilley]

08:58 AM on 10/28/2011

As do All Teapublicans.

[ScribL]

11:57 PM on 10/27/2011

Issa is the worst of the lot, hard to beat an incumbent who can bankroll his own campaign, but not impossible.

[Robert Lee Harrington]

10:53 PM on 10/27/2011

According to Wikipedia Darrell Edward Issa has a very interesting biography.

....His net worth has been estimated at more than $300 million, making him the richest member of Congress....

Stolen Cars
1971 Dodge Charger
1972 Maserati
1979 Mercedes Benz/Indicted for Insurance Fraud

Firearms Violations
1972 carrying a concealed weapon/possession of an unregistered gun

Possible Arson Fire 1982

"In February 2011, the Watchdog Institute,....published an investigation alleging that as leader of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa built a team that included staff members with close connections to industries that could benefit from his investigations. .... several had ties to big oil billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, whose companies could benefit from changes in regulations.

...In September 2011,... American Family Voices filed an ethics complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Issa, alleging that he has repeatedly used his public office for personal financial gain. The group claimed that Issa used his position with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to intervene in dealings with Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and others, where he had a financial interest at play. In one instance, the complaint claimed that Issa intervened in an investigation of Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch while being a "major" customer who "bought and sold more than $200 million in Merrill Lynch mutual funds in the days after the Bank of America acquisition."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa

[mea25]

03:10 AM on 10/28/2011

word. Darrell Issa if=s the Repoopicant posterchild/grand inquisitor who happens to be as corrupt/vile/rotten as the "criminals" he's chasing.

[rgilley]

08:59 AM on 10/28/2011

Only a Republican Congress would put this criminal in charge of any investigation.
And just WHO in the world are the people who sent this criminal to Our Congress!!

[dwedge]

10:09 PM on 10/27/2011

Well, is it possible that he was going undercover to conduct his investigation?

[patters85]

11:24 PM on 10/27/2011

He was definitely under the covers. And got a nice tip on his night stand.

[rgilley]

09:00 AM on 10/28/2011

Sure thats it. Issa has such a spotless record we can only assume he was doing the right thing.

[No1Liberal]

09:36 PM on 10/27/2011

And Issa wants to know why they are bankrupt? Ask him this question, how much did the lobbyist pay him?

[Shelia Washington]

08:16 PM on 10/27/2011

These Republicans have gone WILD!

[rgilley]

09:02 AM on 10/28/2011

And IF we do not get them Out of our government they and the Wall Street 1% of greedy elites WILL destroy freedom and democracy in America. Here are the new owners of the Teapublican party ....you decide!

Extortion Politics: Koch Brothers Operative Confirms That Tea Party in Congress Is Not There to Negotiate
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2011/08/03/extortion-politics-tea-party-astroturfer-confirms-that-tea-baggers-in-congress-are-not-there-to-negotiate/

Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/06/nation/la-na-koch-brothers-20110206

Koch Industries Instructed 50K Employees How They Were Supposed To Vote In 2010 Elections
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/20/koch-coerced-employees-during-the-2010-midterm-elections/

"
The Koch brothers are modern-day robber barons — rabid right wing billionaires who finance phony grassroots operations like the Tea Party to impose their own repressive, freedom-squelching views upon a gullible electorate led into a sea of ignorance by fake promises of returning power to the people and fighting the establishment."

"I know the Kochs. I met them while one of the consulting firms that helped create some of their phony grassroots operations like Citizens for a Sound Economy, which morphed into former GOP Congressman Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and — ultimately — the Tea Party."

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/40038