A House Energy subcommittee released internal administration documents Wednesday showing a push to finish work on the loan package in mid-2009 so that Vice President Joe Biden could announce it. And lawmakers spent four hours grilling two administration officials about the decision to risk so much taxpayer money on Solyndra's uncertain technology.

"This was a half-billion-dollar mistake," said Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Solana Beach).

But the documents failed to produce any smoking guns (Cr note: so far) in a brewing controversy that Republicans are using to try to discredit Obama's push for additional stimulus spending in his new jobs bill.(Cr Note: Spin here)

For the record: A previous version of this article, in one paragraph, incorrectly said the loan package was being worked on last summer. It was summer 2009.

Though the documents indicated concerns about Solyndra's financial prospects, they also showed that its application began moving forward during the Bush administration. The rush, in the summer of 2009, came after the Energy Department had approved the package and was awaiting a final estimate on its budgetary cost.(Cr note: Bush turned it down)

Obama administration officials defended the decision to back Solyndra in the face of huge investments in solar technology by China. They said the loan guarantee wasn't rushed and that the company ultimately failed because of unforeseen circumstances: a 42% drop in prices for competing solar panels this year and an economic crisis in Europe that significantly reduced demand.

"It's a disappointing outcome, but it comes with the terrain of backing innovative technology," said Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. (Cr note:yeah , right)

Last year, Obama hailed Solyndra as an innovative company that would use stimulus money to create jobs and help lead the economic recovery. But the firm laid off most of its 1,100 workers Aug. 31 and announced it would cease operations. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week. (Indeed..someone got the mo' money)

Two days later, agents with the FBI and Energy Department's Inspector General's office raided Solyndra's Fremont headquarters. The FBI hasn't said what prompted the search. (Probably a lightbulb went out?)

Under questioning Wednesday, Obama administration officials said they did not know the focus of the investigation. Lawmakers also said they were in the dark.(Well...it is the most transparent admi. in Us history..right?)

But Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said they were upset that Solyndra executives said this summer that the company would double its revenue this year. (Cr note: awww...)

"I'm perplexed how they could be in my office in July telling me things were looking better and filing for bankruptcy two months later," DeGette said.

The criminal probe is likely focusing on whether Solyndra executives made misleading statements or omissions in their dealings with government officials, said John Hueston, a former lead prosecutor in the case against Enron's top executives who now practices white-collar defense at Irell and Manella.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if the company's failure caused the FBI to act quickly. Often, a bankruptcy will cause law enforcement to seize evidence that might disappear when the company shuts down.

DeGette said she had not been contacted by the FBI. And Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office, said he had no indication Solyndra provided inaccurate information.

"I have no reason sitting here today to believe we were misled," Silver told the subcommittee. (Cr: Perhaps sitting there tomorrow might prove more beneficial to memory)

Two Solyndra executives, including Chief Executive Brian Harrison, were scheduled to testify Wednesday, but canceled because they said they were focused on a potential sale of the company and dealing with the bankruptcy and criminal investigation. (Cr: Right! Who wants to buy a bankrupt company?)

Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. Stover Jr. are scheduled to testify at another hearing next week. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said he wanted to question Energy Secretary Steven Chu as well.

You should have protected the taxpayers and made some forceful actions here," Stearns told Zients and Silver.

Stearns and other Republicans said the Energy Department's credit committee rejected the Solyndra loan in early January 2009, but it was resurrected after Obama took office later that month and conditionally approved in March.

Documents released Wednesday, however, showed that the credit committee didn't reject Solyndra's application. It said a number of "unresolved" issues made a recommendation for approval "premature" at the time.

The credit committee requested an independent market analysis and other research, which Silver said was completed within weeks, allowing for the approval.

With the White House eager to start announcing stimulus programs, a special assistant for Biden sent an email to an Office of Management and Budget staffer on Aug. 31, 2009, asking how they could "help speed along" the Solyndra deal so the vice president could announce it four days later.

The OMB staffer preferred that the announcement be postponed. And another OMB email to Biden's office complained of "having to do rushed approvals."

Zients said the approval was not for Solyndra's loan, but for its budgetary cost. They denied any political influence.

But Republicans charged that political concerns rushed the deal.

"It seems like crony capitalism was trumping the smart decision making … that should have been going on," said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). "Now there's $535 million in taxpayer money at risk."

Zients and Silver also defended the decision to restructure Solyndra's loan guarantee in February amid the company's mounting financial problems. Government officials believed the restructuring provided the best chance for taxpayers to recoup their money, Silver said.

The restructuring deal put the government in a secondary position to recover its money in bankruptcy, behind $75 million in new private capital raised by the company. Republicans said that violated the 2005 law that created the loan program, which says government money should be first in line.

Silver said and Obama administration lawyers determined that the law applied only to the initial loan guarantee, not to any restructuring.

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) called that a "tortured interpretation."

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