Give us all your money!

Solyndra/Democratic money man: George Kaiser

Solyndra.

Uttering the name of the now-bankrupt solar energy equipment manufacturer/Stimulus beneficiary, conjures all sorts thoughts/imagery/throwing up in your mouth a little.

Now that more than half-a-billion simoleons has been thrown away on the it-would-never-work green company, Congress, the FBI, the State of California, and the Departments of Treasury and Energy are hot on the trail of false promises, cons, dodges and -- perhaps -- misappropriation of public funds and/or outright theft.

Among those in investigators' cross hairs: Oklahoma billionaire, Obama/Democratic fundraiser and big Solyndra backer George Kaiser -- see photo at top. (For the record, the very wealthy man from Tulsa claims to have invested nothing in the company...but his foundation had more than a third interest in the failure.)

Since the scandal broke, Kaiser has worked to keep his distance from the brewing crisis, but his connections to the company and interactions with the White House (attending 16 of the company's 20 meetings with administration officials) have belied his denials of trying to influence a $535 billion federal loan (from the Stimulus) to Solyndra.

Below is an interesting clip from one of Kaiser's speeches. (Brief transcript follows...) In it, he shares his views on "getting the money."

“There’s never been more money shoved out of the government’s door in world history, and probably never will be again, than in the last few months and in the next 18 months,” he says. “And our selfish parochial goal is to get as much as it for Tulsa and Oklahoma as we possibly can.”

George Kaiser cites his “multiple trips to Washington” and his ability to secure meetings with “all the key players in the West Wing of the White House.” He also touts his “almost unique advantage,” through his foundation, of being able to match public dollars with private funding. That way, Kaiser says, the Obama administration will know “we’ll watch over it because we don’t want to be embarrassed with the way our money is spent and so we won’t make you be embarrassed with the way your money is spent either.”