Issa to Investigate Obama on Solyndra, LightSquared

Darrell Issa has long promised to use his House oversight panel to investigate the Obama administration, and the White House has served up two hanging fastballs for him: Solyndra and LightSquared. The chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee told C-SPAN today that he intends to investigate the administration's ties to both, reports the Hill. "I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers ... it wasn't because there were large contributions given to them."

The White House is accused of speeding up loans to Solyndra, a green-tech company that went bankrupt last month. LightSquared is a wireless startup whose technology apparently interferes with military GPS, and an Air Force general says the White House pressured him to downplay that in testimony. The two companies have "strong ties" to Democratic donors, notes Business Insider. "This is another reason that crony capitalism … is dangerous, because they're going to pick winners that they ideologically, or in some cases because they support their candidacy, want to see win," said Issa. (On the crony front, ThinkProgress still wants to know why Issa won't go after Rupert Murdoch.)