Dem compares GOP to 'birthers' for issuing Solyndra subpoena

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is comparing Republicans who voted to subpoena the White House for Solyndra documents to critics of President Obama who allege he wasn’t born in the United States.

Schakowsky was among a parade of Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats who slammed the subpoena vote Thursday, calling it a political attack that ignores White House efforts to work with the committee on its request for documents.

“I doubt that anything the White House would have agreed to yesterday would have been sufficient. This is a majority that won’t take yes for an answer,” Schakowsky said Thursday ahead of the committee vote.

“And while you are at it why don’t you ask for more documents relating to the place of his birth, or as some members want, his school grades, and why not from kindergarten through law school,” she added.

Her comments are an allusion to the “birther” movement that doubts Obama was born in Hawaii. Obama released his long-form birth certificate in April.

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigations panel voted along party lines to issue the subpoena Thursday for all White House internal communications on Solyndra, the solar manufacturing company that went bankrupt in early September after receiving a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009.

White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Wednesday met with top committee Republicans and Democrats and offered to provide documents if lawmakers narrowed their request.

But Republicans on Thursday went ahead with the vote to authorize the subpoena, arguing the White House has not been responsive enough to their efforts.

“At this point in time, I am not confident that we will have a good faith response from the White House without issuing a subpoena,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the investigations panel, ahead of the vote.

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