The Energy Department defied Republican critics Friday by announcing that it had committed an additional $4.7 billion in loan guarantees toward four big-dollar clean technology projects just hours before the program’s funding expired.

The announcement marked a dramatic ending for the $18 billion loan guarantee program, which has been central to the administration’s push to create jobs and promote green technology. Simultaneously, the program has come under fire for its handling of a half-billion-dollar loan to Solyndra, a solar company that collapsed in August.

Leading Republican strategists say that if he is serious about a presidential race in 2012, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is running out of time to build the kind of national campaign and fundraising organization he will need. But, they added, the tough-talking governor immediately would become a top-tier candidate with a real chance of winning the GOP nomination.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominating contest will begin in January or earlier, but its exact kick off is still up in the air and likely won’t be known on Friday.

Florida put the map in flux this morning after a commission officially chose Jan. 31 for its primary date. That runs afoul of Republican National Committee rules by leapfrogging the four states the RNC has permitted to precede the others.

The federal government is in the toilet. Literally.

Commodes exploded — great band name, by the way — at the General Services Administration on Monday, injuring two people (not a laughing matter) and causing the GSA to shutter the 64 bathrooms and 320 stalls in the building because of a dangerous plumbing situation. (File that under “sentences I never thought I would type.”)

Michelle Obama’s excursion to Target in Alexandria last night — captured for posterity by an Associated Press photographer who covers the White House — is part of a pattern by the first lady: She gets out of the bubble as often as she can.

According to news reports, Obama has also gone shopping with friends at Tysons Corner. She takes her staff out for burgers at Shake Shack. She has bought supplies for her dog at Petco.