The Friday night document dump has long been part of the playbook in political Washington as when you have something that you don't want discussed too much, you release it on Friday, when most people aren't keeping tabs on the news and many reporters just want the week to end.

We got a little taste of that last Friday on two subjects that have started to blossom in terms of being a real pain in the butt for the Obama Administration, the investigation into the loan guarantee for Solyndra and the probe into Operation Fast and Furious.

On Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder sent key lawmakers a letter pushing back against Republican criticism of whether he has told the truth about his knowledge of the operation, which allowed guns to go to Mexican drug cartels.

In recent days, it has become clear that top officials in the Justice Department were briefed about the effort, and that the Attorney General was certainly notified of the operation in the summer of 2010 - even though he denied at a hearing earlier this year that he knew anything about the effort.

Earlier this year, Holder told a House hearing that he had just learned of the Fast and Furious issue, something which seemed like the recently released documents contradicted.

In his letter, Holder said just because the program was noted in a weekly report given to him, it didn't mean he knew there was anything amiss.

On Sunday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said he would soon issue new subpeonas to the Justice Department for more information on Fast and Furious - including one to Holder.

Since Holder has already made the rounds on Capitol Hill for his usual oversight hearings, he would not be due back before the Congress until spring of 2012 most likely.

That's where a subpoena could draw Holder back to Capitol Hill for what certainly might be a high profile showdown with Republicans, some of whom have called for his resignation.

As for Solyndra, a big e-mail dump on Friday lifted the curtain even more on how involved the West Wing of the White House was in trying to push ahead with the loan guarantee to Solyndra.

The latest Solyndra information also included an ethics angle, as a Department of Energy official repeatedly made the case for the company, even though he had agreed not to "participate in any discussion" of Solyndra's loan application.

Why?

Because his wife worked for a law firm that was doing work for Solyndra. She wasn't working on Solyndra, but he had agreed to stay out of all discussions.

House Republicans said the emails showed a much higher level of involvement inside the White House than had previously been known, as the GOP set another round of hearings for this Friday.

"The paper trail released by the White House portrays a disturbingly close relationship between President Obama's West Wing inner circle, campaign donors, and wealthy investors that spawned the Solyndra mess," said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI).

The witnesses for this Friday's hearing before the panel are TBD.