I Love It When Businesses Get Scrappy with the Government
It happens all to seldom, for reasons I understand well. Oil companies and Wal-Mart and other vilified private entities that are the object of populist and cynical political attacks very seldom fight back. The reason is not because they are in the wrong, but because the government has the power to gut them like a fish in a myriad of ways, and are populated by petty little thugs who love to dish it out but can seldom take any criticism.
That is why its great to see Koch Industries telling demagogues in the Democratic Party to take a hike. For some bizarre reason, perhaps because the Left saw how much fun the Right had vilifying George Soros for everything, the Koch brothers are not the source of all imaginable plots and schemes.
Check out this letter, where Koch Industries responds to Democratic fundraising pitch.
doug bennett:
you mean "all too seldom"
July 8, 2011, 8:47 amBlogDog:
Second @doug bennett.
July 8, 2011, 9:38 amI was lost for a moment before I twigged.
Vilmos:
> You followed that up with a voicemail* indicating that,
> if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an
> invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at
> a retreat in Kiawah Island this September.
Isn't this an open invitation for bribery? And isn't this legally actionable? Maybe the Republicans/Tea Partiers should hammer this nugget during the campaign: "Democrats: Vote for us. Then you can bribe us to have your voice."
When I read something like this, always this come to my mind: "US Democracy: where every dollar is fairly represented."
Vilmos
July 8, 2011, 9:58 amcaseyboy:
The dem's are used to getting away this all the time. They deride Wall Street Bankers as Satan incarnate then turn around and extract $10's of millions in campaign contributions. And the spineless WSB's just roll-over and take it. I think maybe the Koch brothers are really peeved about what the progressives are doing to the country. After all these guys grew up in "fly over" country.
I really like that they did it in a an open letter for all to see. Bet they don't get a Obamacare waiver or Xmas card.
July 8, 2011, 10:24 amme:
LOL. Rock on, Koch brothers...
That said, dear commenters: you implicitly support this absolutely corrupt regime of politicians openly soliciting bribes by making it a tribal issue. "Dems" do this? Really? I'll let you use google yourselves to find the instances of "Reps" doing the exact same.
The issue here is not "my party good their party bad", it's that this country is in the hands of a group of people who incompetently run it into one wall after the other, get in the way of inhabitants pursuing their very own business, blatantly extort money and point at a differently labelled group of people (who behave exactly the same way) as the source of all problems. Every 4 to 8 years, we switch, so that the other group can continue the exact same behavior.
July 8, 2011, 10:48 amsteve:
They got nothing to lose since they are all ready demonized by the Dems and loved by the Reps. May as well go all in.
July 8, 2011, 11:29 amHasdrubal:
When I read the blog post, my first reaction was that the Koch brothers should know about the Streisand effect.
Then I read the letter. Pure gold, excellently done.
July 8, 2011, 12:46 pmTim:
Actually, most corporate fundraising comes down to: "That's a nice company you have there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it."
July 9, 2011, 9:26 amcaseyboy:
Point taken "me". The reps are out hat in hand all the time and will take money from any special interest that offers. You'll get no argument from me on that point. However, I think the dem's can be a little more hypocritical in this regard. Heck WS bankers were holding dem fund raisers while Dodd and Frank were blistering them to get finance reform done. My question is did the dems learn this tactic from the Good Reverend Jesse Jackson or was it the other way around.
July 11, 2011, 1:38 pm