The Democratic Party of Wisconsin blasted oil billionaire David Koch on Monday for supporting Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his fight against public unions.
“I think I speak for most Wisconsinites when I say to David Koch, ‘Get out of Wisconsin and take Scott Walker’s dangerous agenda with you,’” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said.
In a rare interview with the Palm Beach Post, Koch described Walker as “impressive” and “courageous.” He said his conservative group Americans for Prosperity was hard at work in Wisconsin.
“We’ve spent a lot of money in Wisconsin,” Koch said. “We’re going to spend more.”
Walker and Republican lawmakers pushed to curb the collective-bargaining rights of public employees earlier this year, eventually passing the highly controversial legislation using a parliamentary maneuver.
The attack on collective-bargaining rights set off unprecedented recall campaigns against Republican and Democratic Wisconsin state senators. Democrats ended up gaining two seats in the Senate after defeating incumbent Republicans. Walker now faces a recall election himself.
Koch said restricting collective-bargaining rights was “critically important” and warned there would be “no stopping union power” if Walker is ousted from office.
“This disturbing interview shows a man in David Koch who believes that because of his wealth, he should be able to dictate what happens in a place he hopes to convert into a plantation state for his low-wage, low-benefits, no-rights companies. Wisconsin cannot let David Koch or Scott Walker buy Wisconsin and break our middle class,” Tate said.
Koch Industries has given $10,000 — themaximum legal political contribution — to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) since he was elected in 2010. The Koch PAC tapped out with a $5,000 contribution on June 30. In March, Brown wascaught brown-nosing to petrochemical billionaire David Koch by ThinkProgress Green:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) went to the heart of Wall Street last night to deliver a major speech on the deficit at the Economic Club of New York. The stage on which Boehner spoke featured a who’s who of financial moguls, including conservative billionaire David Koch, co-owner — along with his brother Charles –of the oil conglomerate Koch Industries, and a major funder of right-wing advocacy and tea party groups. This AP photo captured Boehner shaking hands with deficit advocate Pete Peterson, as Koch looked on:
Koch was also one of the few people with whom Boehner shook hands as he exited the stage after his speech (Koch is sitting left side, fourth from the right, front row):
Boehner and Koch appear to have a friendly relationship, as Koch met with Boehner’s staff in the Speaker’s office on the first day of the new Congress, where Koch washosting a party for freshmen GOP lawmakers.
Last year, the New York Times revealed that petrochemical billionaire David Koch was among a small group of multibillionaires quietly promoting a presidential candidacy for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Today, areport by investigative journalist Peter Stone states that Koch actually hosted Romney last summer for one of his first large fundraising parties:
Romney’s team boasts veteran bigwig bundlers such as Woody Johnson, who owns the New York Jets; Wayne Berman, who chairs the lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations; and David Koch of Koch Industries. This trio and other big bundlers have done yeoman’s work already. Last August, Koch and his wife hosted an evening soiree at their home in the Hamptons for Romney. Since the November elections, Romney has done about one conference call a month with a nationwide group of some 300 fundraisers to keep them in the loop.
The Koch brothers have historically played a key role in selecting GOP candidates. Last year, they guided a large contingent of climate change-denying candidates to victory using their Tea Party “Americans for Prosperity” and “No Climate Tax” front groups.
During the ’90s, Koch heavily supported Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole. At one point, Koch “turned his Gatsbyish estate in Southampton, New York, into the site for celebrating Dole’s 72nd birthday in July 1995, raising $150,000 for his campaign.” Dole reciprocated throughout his career; at one point offering legislation to suppress an investigation into Koch Industries’ massive theft of oil from Indian reservations and public lands.
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: 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.
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.
Conservative billionaire David Koch, co-owner of the $110 billion dollar Koch Industries chemical and petroleum conglomerate, provided a “lengthy” interview to Boston Globe reporter Stephen Smith yesterday. Smith asked about Ian Murphy’s prank call to Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Walker, who thought he was speaking with David Koch, bragged about his union busting campaign, joked about using a baseball bat against his opponents, and confessed that he had considered planting trouble makers in the protest crowd. According to Smith, Koch was both “amused and bemused” by the prank, but said he has “no relationship with the governor and didn’t directly support him.” But through political action committees and right-wing front groups, Koch has actually provided much of the muscle for Walker’s election and his current anti-labor power grab:
– Koch Industry’s PAC provided $43,000 in funds to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, and funneled $1.5 million to the Republican Governor’s Association, which in turn spent $65,000 supporting Walker and $3.4 million in ads attacking Walker’s Democratic opponent.
– David Koch is the founder, financier, and chairman of Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing “grassroots” front group. Americans for Prosperity, according to the New York Times, pressured Walker before he was even sworn in to take on public sector unions. Americans for Prosperity bused in Tea Party activists to support Walker’s current power grab, organized a major rally to support Walker, and has purchased$342,200 in ads supporting Walker and attacking his liberal critics. Earlier this week, Americans for Prosperity announced a ten city bus tour of Wisconsin to hold rallies to bolster Walker. Neither Koch nor Americans for Prosperity has revealed how much they are spending on this bus tour or rallies.
– Koch’s other front groups have marshaled support for Walker. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a group financed with nearly$500,000 in Koch money and lead in part by a Koch executive, haspushed anti-public sector union legislation to Walker and the Wisconsin GOP. A wide range of Koch-tied groups, like the Reason Foundation and the Cato Institute, have also sung Walker’s praise in the media.
Despite Koch’s contention that he has not “directly” supported Walker, during the prank call between Murphy and Walker, Walker said he was coordinating with “your guy on the ground” — presumably referring to Tim Phillips, a top political deputy to David Koch and current president of Americans for Prosperity. Phillips, a former associate of Jack Abramoff, has a history of anti-Semitic smear campaigns and lobbying work on behalf of a forced-abortion sweatshop owner.
Koch was recently in Boston to unveil the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. The donation to cancer research deserves high praise. However, Koch’s charitable donations should not give him a free pass for his right-wing lobbying or business practices. Koch Industries is one of the country’s worst air polluters, responsible for millions of pounds of cancer-causing chemicals. As the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer has reported, Koch Industries has lobbied aggressively to stop the government from recognizing their chemicals, like formaldehyde, as carcinogenic. Moreover, Koch’s political operation came close to defeating health reform — running millions of dollars in ads, organizing rallies, disrupting town hall meetings. For those who have not inherited an oil company, and cannot afford health insurance or have what an insurance company deems a “preexisting condition,” Koch’s political operation has worked to ensure that they continue to suffer.
This is Part 1 of a three-part installment of ThinkProgress’ interview with David Koch.
Yesterday, David Koch — one of the richest men in America, co-owner of the conglomerate Koch Industries, and a top financier of right-wing front groups — attended the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and also hosted a party for the new Republican majority he helped bankroll.
Perhaps no one has been more aggressive in exposing Koch’s activities than ThinkProgress. We first reported in April 2009 that Americans for Prosperity, the front group founded and chaired by Koch since 1984, helped orchestrate many of the first Tea Party rallies and anti-Obama protests. ThinkProgess also unearthed a memo detailing how Koch convened a meeting of executives from Wall Street and the oil industry — along with hate talker Glenn Beck and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — to plan how to win the November elections for Republicans in 2010.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress came face-to-face with David Koch, so we seized the opportunity to conduct an impromptu interview. We ran into him outside of the Capitol, where he was chatting with one of the freshmen lawmakers he helped elect, Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH), as well as Tim Phillips, a longtime “astroturf” lobbyist and former Jack Abramoff associate now hired by Koch to lead his Americans for Prosperity front group. Koch told ThinkProgress that he expects the new Republican Congress to “cut the hell out of spending, balance the budget, reduce regulations, and support business.” Asked about the Tea Party movement, Koch cautioned that there are some extremists (indeed, Koch-funded Tea Party events have featured signs comparing health reform to the Holocaust). However, Koch said he “admire[s]” the Tea Party movement, saying that “the rank and file are just normal people like us”:
TP: Hi sir, I’m Lee Fang. I’m with the blog ThinkProgress. I’m just asking what you’re expecting from the new Congress under Speaker Boehner?
KOCH: Well, cut the hell out of spending, balance the budget, reduce regulations, and uh, support business.
PHILLIPS: Hey David, Lee here is a good blogger on the left, we’re glad to have him–
TP: Just a quick interview. Are you proud of what Americans for Prosperity has achieved this year?
KOCH: You bet I am, man oh’ man. We’re going to do more too in the next couple of years, you know.
TP: What are you planning on doing. What are your goals?
KOCH: I just told you what we hope the Congress will do and AFP is going to support that.
[...]
TP: I’m curious to know, Mr. Koch, are you proud of what the Tea Party movement and what they’ve achieved in the past years–
KOCH: Yeah. There are some extremists there, but the rank and file are just normal people like us. And I admire them. It’s probably the best grassroots uprising since 1776 in my opinion.
Watch it:
It’s interesting that Koch, who inherited his wealth from his father’s oil company and is now worth $21.5 billion dollars, considers himself just another “normal” Tea Party member. Despite the myth that the Tea Party represents some kind of “spontaneous” uprising of middle class voters, many of the drivers of the movement come from America’s wealthy elite. Millionaire Steve Forbes and corporate lobbyist Dick Armey own the other significant Tea Party organizing group, FreedomWorks. Cliff Asness, a wealthy hedge fund manager who attended several Republican planning meetings and Koch’s secret meeting last June, considers himself a card-carrying member of the Tea Party movement.
Despite the Tea Party veneer, Koch and other wealthy businessmen have a self-interested reason to invest in anti-government movements and Republican politicians. Koch funneled large amounts of donations into electing George Bush in 2000 (even sending Koch-linked lobbyists to help disrupt the Florida recount). At the time, Koch Industries faced 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, known to cause leukemia, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. When Bush took office, his Justice Department dropped 88 of the charges and settled the case for a small amount of money. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Koch front groups largely dictated Bush’s environmental regulatory policy and Koch lobbyists gained appointments to key environmental regulatory position in the administration.
Although Bush is gone, Koch still flexes his muscle over major policy issues in the Obama era. Americans for Prosperity, leveraging its large budget and over 80 campaign operatives, coordinated Tea Party protests to kill clean energy reform (Koch Industries is a major oil company and is still one of the worst polluters in America), pass tax cuts for the rich, and to slow down financial reform (Koch Industries is also very active in the unregulated derivatives market). Koch’s vast network of front groups are also credited with successfully distorting the public’s understanding of climate change.
M.C.L Comment: So is David Koch saying the tea party are a bunch of greedy, selfish right wing bastards or is he saying he's a selfish, misinformed dumb ass who get his information from rich greedy bastards on the radio?
By Lee Fang
Today, as Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was sworn in as the Speaker of the House for the 112th Congress, ThinkProgress witnessed a group of Koch Industries lobbyists entering the Capitol along with members of Congress and their families. Tim Phillips, a former business partner to Jack Abramoff who now leads the Koch front group Americans for Prosperity, was with Nancy Pfotenhauer, a former corporate lobbyist for Koch Industries. ThinkProgress learned that David Koch, the polluter billionaire who has bankrolled groups organizing the Tea Parties and much of the modern conservative movement, was also in attendance in the Capitol for Boehner’s swearing-in event.
After the ceremony, David Koch walked up to Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) — a freshman Republican Koch helped to elect using his front group, Americans for Prosperity — and asked him to confirm that he will be attending a party that Koch is hosting for Republicans. Guinta said he would be at the party, which began at 5:00pm today.
Koch has been one of the most active players in Republican politics in the Obama era. His group Americans for Prosperity helped orchestrate much of the Tea Party movement; he funds many of the top conservative think tanks, like Heritage and the American Legislative Exchange Council; and, he also ran tens of millions of dollars in attack ads to elect the new Republican Congress. As ThinkProgress reported, Koch convened a secret meeting of top business leaders — mostly bankers, industrialists, and oil men — to meet with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Glenn Beck to plan the midterm election in June 2010.
M.C.L Comment: David Koch is only checking out the house Republicans he helped brought.
