EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Scott Brown Begs David Koch For Money

By Brad Johnson

At the public dedication of MIT’s David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute last Friday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) effusively thanked conservative billionaire David Koch for supporting his election in 2010 and made a plea for help in his re-election campaign next year. David Koch directly gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee$30,400 in November 2009, and the Koch Industries PAC threw in $15,000 to NRSC plus $5,000 more directly to Brown right before Brown’s special election. In the following exchange, Brown thanks Koch and his wife Julia (off-camera) for their support, saying “I can certainly use it again”:

BROWN: Your support during the election, it meant a ton. It made a difference and I can certainly use it again. Obviously, the –

KOCH: When are you running for the next term?

BROWN: ’12.

KOCH: Oh, okay.

BROWN: I’m in the cycle right now. We’re already banging away.

Watch it:

Brown then lavished praise on the Kochs and MIT president Susan Hockfield for establishing the research center with $100 million, about 0.5 percent of Koch’s toxic petrochemical fortune. Koch’s Tea Party politicians in the House are working to negate his contribution by cutting $1.6 billion in federal funding for the National Instititues of Health.

Brown has been a good Koch foot soldier, voting to protect Koch’s carbon pollution and complaining about the “onerous” estate tax.

Transcript:

BROWN: Your support during the election, it meant a, it meant a ton. It made a, it made a difference and I can certainly use it again. Obviously, the uh . . .

KOCH: When are you running, uh, for the next term?

BROWN: ’12.

KOCH: Oh, okay.

BROWN: I’m in the cycle, I’m in the cycle right now. We’re already banging away. But you guys should all be very proud. I mean this is amazing. I’ve actually taken the tour and uh just the things you aim to attack this issue is, is huge.

SUSAN HOCKFIELD, MIT PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.

BROWN: Thank you, for your leadership.

KOCH: Susan was the main uh uh person who created the idea of combining the uh the bioengineers with the cancer researchers and then uh, so she’s a brilliant lady and a leader here.

HOCKFIELD: Hi, David. David’s enthusiasm, Tyler’s [Jacks, Koch Institute director] genius, and I just said, sure, let’s do it.

KOCH: Ha ha ha!

UPDATEThe Boston Globe's Mark Arsenault notes:

In public appearances, the senator says that he's not interested in politicking right now, that there will be time for it in 2012 — his re-election year. Yet in the video, Brown tells Koch he's politicking right now.