Heavy sigh: Why Americans are so tired of reading the latest loan scandal ...

It is not just that there could not be a worse time to be dumping money in one industry just because its success would support the president's "green" agenda.

And it is not just that another large dump of money turns out to have been wasted because the left hand did not seem to know what the right hand was doing.

What makes the Solyndra scandal so discouraging -- and Americans so leery of entrusting anything to Washington in general and this administration in particular -- is that no one seems to have done their homework, again, and then, like a child caught in a lie, the officials involved tried to hide the misdeed.

And that means the taxpayers are left holding the bag for another failed stimulus attempt.

Yes, Energy Secretary Steven Chu should go. For nearly half a billion dollars to be dumped into a solar company that no one seems to have checked out is beyond preposterous. It is simple, downright incompetence. And then, to even consider dumping more money into an already failed investment just to keep anyone from being the wiser, that is just criminal.

But Chu is not the only guilty party -- and it is time to start holding the president and his entourage responsible when they make rookie mistakes to further their own agendas under the guise of helping the American people.

In all fairness to Chu and to the president, however, this is not the only disappointment that Americans have confronted when it comes to trusting their elected officials.

Seems that quite a few of them have been using inside information to make money in the stock market -- and others might have steered money to their cronies for federal loans and assistance. And while the former and the latter might be sketchy and on the edge when it comes to ethics, there is nothing expressly illegal about it. Fills you with confidence, doesn't it?

Starts to make you wonder: Does anyone in Washington care about the words "honesty," "integrity" and "fairness" anymore?

The Solyndra scandal should not be over -- and it should be up to the Fourth Estate -- that's the media -- and the Congress itself to ferret out not only what happened in this case, but what other deals might be slithering behind the scenes.

And while we are at it, why not add a few more rules to the old ethics manual.

Sounds like we need them.

Published in Editorials on November 19, 2011 11:32 PM