Recently, Eli Lehrer of the pro-market R Street Institute made another suggestion: Instead of simply attacking federal loan guarantees for clean-tech firms such as Solyndra, the federal government should get out of the business of subsidizing the energy sector entirely.

CNN: Why Mitt Romney is losing

Late yesterday, Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jim Webb (D-VA) wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), urging the use a pro forma session of Congress in order to offer a solution.

FORBES: Airline Taxes, Job Cuts Tied to Fights Over Subsidies and Unions

In order to honor the longest-serving and oldest senator in history, whom Byrd had just replaced, a resolution was offered that created a new position -- president pro tempore emeritus -- for 98 year-old Strom Thurmond, R-South Carolina.

CNN: Smiles, handshakes on the Senate floor

Byrd, of West Virginia, presided over the chamber as the new Senate president pro tempore, replacing Strom Thurmond, R-South Carolina.

CNN: In the Senate, it's the day of the Democrats

Just in time for the holidays, and making a perfect external storage companion to the Apple(R) Macbook(R), MacBook(TM) Pro or Macbook Air(TM), the new G-DRIVE slim external hard drive gives users 320GB of storage and ubiquitous USB 2.0 connectivity in an amazingly slim form factor.

ENGADGET: Hitachi GST's G-Drive Slim: world's thinnest 2.5-inch external hard drive