The American Thinker is reporting on more Department of Energy loans to another star of the clean energy pageant. This one is based in Nevada, focuses on geothermal energy, and has received a taxpayer backed $79 million loan and a grant of $66 million. Oh, and of course, the company is on the skids and may soon go the way of Solyandra. And of course the company also has ties to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Is this a real scandal yet?

That may be one of the most important questions facing our country. This should be an outrage. It's not even the specifics of any one of these loans or even this loan program itself, but the entire increasingly corrupt American patronage system. This is the almost unavoidable outcome of big government. If government officials are going to have the power to control trillions of dollars and give away millions and billions, either as pure payouts or as regulations to destroy competitors, then we no longer have a free market system, but a political-economy.

Is this what Americans want? Do Americans really accept this idea that the brilliant bureaucrats at DoE are the best stewards of our country's resources and are the most likely to channel money to the most deserving endeavors? Are Americans so cynical, so used to Washington corruption and graft, that they can't be bother to object to such ho-hum cronyism?

I hope not. This should be a galvanizing moment. Liberals who object to big business's collusion with big government should join with conservatives to roll back government's power to get rid of this kind of rank corruption.