The Karl Rove-backed conservative advocacy group Crossroads GPS launched a half-million-dollar cable television ad campaign today in an effort to ensure that Solyndra isn't forgotten about this holiday season.

The $500,000 buy will allow the 501 c(4), which is a sister organization to the well-funded political action committee American Crossroads, to run its new 30-second ad for 10 days on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

SPECIAL REPORT

Solyndra, a solar manufacturer that was given a $535 million loan guarantee and touted by the White House as a model for the clean energy economy, has filed for bankruptcy. E&E examines how it got there and what it means. Click here to read the report.

The new ad includes a clip from President Obama's now-infamous May 2010 visit to the California-based solar panel manufacturing company in which he stated that "the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra."

"Typical Washington," a narrator states. "Obama says spend more and promises jobs. Obama donors and insiders line up for handouts. ... Mr. President, we need jobs, not more Washington insider deals."

In a strategy memo that was released along with the new ad today, Crossroads said that Solyndra, which went bankrupt after receiving more than half a million dollars in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy, is an example of a "Crony Keynesianism" economic policy in which the White House has shipped massive government funds to supporters like the wealthy campaign bundler who was also heavily invested in Solyndra.

The group argued in the memo that the same dynamics are currently at play in the fight over whether to allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil-sands crude from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

"The President's politically-driven decision to put 20,000 Keystone XL jobs on ice until after 2012 is another example of how lobbying and special interest access have become the coins of the realm in Obama's government-centered economy," the memo states.

The ad and memo were released on the same day that the Republican National Committee launched its own new web ad that also criticizes Obama for supporting his liberal allies over job creators when it comes to the Keystone project.

The Crossroads GPS ad hits the airwaves nearly four weeks after Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the Solyndra loan and efforts the department took to save the company. While Chu took heavy criticism during that hearing, he maintained that the financial decision regarding Solyndra was made by career staffers, not political operatives.

The hearings, and the document dumps of internal administration emails that accompanied them, made for an embarrassing few months for the White House. But the hearings have also earned increasing criticism from those who have described them as a political witch hunt over green energy.

"The hearings failed to buttress Republican allegations that the Solyndra deal was a payoff to Obama campaign bankrollers such as billionaire George Kaiser, who was but one of many financiers from both parties who invested in Solyndra," a Detroit Free Press editorial stated over the weekend. "Nor does Solyndra's collapse reveal a fundamental flaw in the administration's green energy strategy."

While Democrats have said that the Republican investigation has fizzled out in the weeks since Chu's appearance, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who serves as the chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on investigations, has stated that his probe of Solyndra is far from over.

A spokesman for Stearns said today that the committee is continuing to gather documents and is in negotiations with the White House to obtain certain internal communications related to Solyndra that the committee issued subpoenas for last month.

"The White House documents are critical to getting a complete understanding of the lessons of Solyndra as Congress works to ensure American taxpayers are not left holding the bag on risky bets," said the spokesman, Sean Bonyun.

The new Solyndra ad hits the airwaves just a day before a California auction house is set to hold its second auction of Solyndra's non-core assets.

The first sale of Solyndra's surplus assets took place in early November. That auction drew 1,000 participants and spectators to the company's former headquarters building in Fremont, Calif., while thousands more participated online (Greenwire, Nov. 3).

Solyndra plans to sell its core business assets in one large sale through a separate process that is still being worked out through a bankruptcy court. But the company has been given the go-ahead to try to recoup as much money as it can for its surplus assets.