Monday, September 19, 2011

It's the Chicago Way, but instead of a paving or trucking contract, it's a "green" solar panel contract.


Obama's Solyndra scandal reeks of the Chicago Way - John Kass/ Chicago Tribune

"The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad," according to a Jan. 31 email from an Office of Management and Budget staffer printed in the Washington Post. "If Solyndra defaults down the road, the optics will arguably be worse later than they would be today. … In addition, the timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up."

I love the use of "optics." It's one of those bloodless words finding favor these days.

"Optics" suggests bureaucrats might think in terms of symbolism, political hieroglyphs, in grand vistas, rather than in hard numbers, like the $535,000,000 that went poof.

But it's not their money, is it? It's ours.