Rep. Fred Upton's right flank won't stop pushing him.
One year after fending off conservative challengers to win the Energy and Commerce gavel, the Michigan Republican is now in the awkward spot of not being on the same page with his top lieutenant on the high-profile Solyndra investigation.
Whereas Upton has taken a cautious tone sizing up the GOP-led probe into the bankrupt California solar company, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) keeps pushing the envelope, trying to take the nine-month-old investigation into places where his chairman doesn't appear ready to go.
Upton refuses to label the Obama administration's handling of Solyndra as "corruption." He says he's not interested in forcing a contempt of Congress vote forcing a legal showdown with the White House for not complying with subpoenas.
And Upton has stayed clear of calling for top Obama officials to be fired for their handling of the $535 million loan guarantee.
Stearns is different.
The chairman of the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee relishes making scathing headlines that purport to show Obama administration wrongdoing. He demanded the president's personal BlackBerry messages -- an idea Upton later knocked down -- and last week entertained the notion of a contempt vote.
"When you issue a subpoena to the White House, you've got to be prepared to back it up," Stearns told reporters.
Upton, asked about a contempt vote, told POLITICO: "I don't know who's talking about that."
Stearns also has led the way in calling for Obama officials to get the ax. Earlier this fall, he said Department of Energy loan guarantee chief Jonathan Silver should be fired; Silver stepped down a few weeks later, saying the move had long been planned. And now Stearns is after Energy Secretary Steven Chu, saying last week that Republicans have the votes to pass a resolution on the floor urging the ouster of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Stearns also said last week that he'd welcome testimony from Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff. Upton? Not so much.