I understand the media's "if it bleeds, it leads" philosophy, but c'mon.

solyndraRemember Solyndra? How could you not! It wasn't just Republicans bashing the solar panel manufacturer after it went belly-up with a $535M federal loan. The Washington Post led the hoard with wall-to-wall coverage of the Solyndra "scandal." It jumped from the Solyndra bankruptcy to suggest President Obama's entire $80B clean technology program was a political liability.

Republicans, of course, used Solyndra to cudgel Obama and his energy policies at every opportunity.

Jump fast forward to yesterday. The Dept. of Energy reports that Obama's renewable energy loan program is on target to earn taxpayers from $5B to $6B, according to Bloomberg. Those financial returns, said renewable energy analyst Michael Morosi, exceeds the returns from many venture capital and private equity investors.

Did the Post pop the champagne? No way, Instead, it feasted on humble pie. The Post largely ignored the upbeat DOE story. There is a Nov. 13 posting from Max Ehrenfreund on the paper's Wonkblog, saying: "In short, you can still take issue with the whole idea of the loans if you like, but you can't claim that the program has been mismanagement or call it a failure or a boondoggle anymore?"

As for the GOP, old habits die hard. Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn says the DOE program that generated such lofty returns for taxpayers in represents "incredible mismanagement, and it's become the poster child for crony capitalism."

Rather than rejoicing over the financial windfall, "taxpayers want us to completely end the program," she added.

Blackburn shows that Sen. Ted Cruz isn't the only "whako-bird" (John McCain's description) in the Republican party.