Media, Politics, Society

Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers’ Political Iceberg?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Last week I wrote up a post titled Scott Walker: A Fiscally Responsible Governor or a Politician Who Is Playing Favorites?. Judging from the number of comments left at that post, it appears that people are very interested in what’s been going on in the state of Wisconsin. I think many people may believe that as Wisconsin goes—so goes the nation…and probably the life expectancy of labor unions and collective bargaining.

What got a lot of press attention was the story of the prank phone call that Governor Walker received from gonzo journalist Ian Murphy. Murphy pretended to be billionaire industrialist David Koch. He talked to Walker for twenty minutes. Murphy reportedly told the Associated Press he made the prank phone call in order to show how candid Walker would be in a conversation with Koch at a time when Democrats claim the governor was refusing to return their calls.

The prank phone call appears to show a cozy relationship between Walker and Koch, a top campaign donor who may have a financial interest in fighting unions. Union workers protesting in Wisconsin have already made monetary concessions to help with Wisconsin’s budget shortfall. One has to wonder what is really behind the governor’s demand that public employee unions be stripped of their right to bargain collectively. Is it all part of an agenda to “take unions out at the knees”—a strategy suggested by Scott Hagerstrom at the annual conference of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC)? Hagerstrom is the Executive Director of Michigan’s chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

In a Mother Jones article, Andy Kroll writes: Walker’s plan to eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees is right out of the Koch brothers’ playbook. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions.

And who is Americans for Prosperity? Felicia Sonmez has written that AFP is really two groups—both of which were founded by David Koch in 2004: Americans for Prosperity, a 501(c)4 and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, is a 501(c)3.

Somnez says that both groups are considered “not-for-profit” organizations under the Internal Revenue Service code—and that they do not have to disclose the identity of their donors or the contributions made by those donors. She added that David Koch is believed to be one of the group’s top donors.

In a New Yorker article titled Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama, Jane Mayer wrote about Peggy Venable, the Texas State Director of AFP: She (Peggy Venable) explained that the role of Americans for Prosperity was to help “educate” Tea Party activists on policy details, and to give them “next-step training” after their rallies, so that their political energy could be channelled “more effectively.” And she noted that Americans for Prosperity had provided Tea Party activists with lists of elected officials to target. She said of the Kochs, “They’re certainly our people. David’s the chairman of our board. I’ve certainly met with them, and I’m very appreciative of what they do.”

In August 2009, ThinkProgress said that it had obtained an exclusive memo from a Tea Party group that is supported by Koch’s Americans for Prosperity.

From Think Progress: “The memo outlined various ways for Tea Party activists to intimidate Democratic lawmakers and disrupt their town hall meetings on health reform. ThinkProgress published half a dozen articles exposing the role of Koch-funded groups like “Patients United” in encouraging opposition to health reform. For instance, in Virginia, a Koch-funded operative Ben Marchi assisted a birther who followed Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) around, yelling at him at town hall meetings.”

That’s all I’ve got for now, folks. Talk amongst yourselves. I need a break!

**********

Sources
Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. (New Yorker)

Who is “Americans for Prosperity”? (Washington Post)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros. (Mother Jones)

Why did Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker take a call from ‘David Koch’? (Christian Science Monitor)

Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute (New York Times)

On prank call, Wis. governor discusses strategy (Yahoo)

Koch Front Group Americans For Prosperity: ‘Take The Unions Out At The Knees’ (Think Progress)

Billionaire Right-Wing Koch Brothers Fund Wisconsin Governor Campaign and Anti-Union Push (Democracy Now)

Union Busting: The Real Call from the Koch Brothers (Huffington Post)

Charles And David Koch Exposed For Insidious Role In Crafting The Modern Right (Think Progress)
  

For Further Reading
Koch-Powered Tea Party Pushes Climate Denial Bill In New Hampshire (Think Progress) 

Commentary: Koch brothers and the union-busting Kansas House (The Kansas City Star)

630 thoughts on “Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers’ Political Iceberg?”

  1. From PRWatch
    A CMD Special Report: Scott Walker Runs on Koch Money
    http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/9964/cmd-special-report-scott-walker-runs-koch-money

    Excerpt:
    Americans for Prosperity’s Investment in Scott Walker

    Notably, Americans for Prosperity bragged that it was going to spend nearly $50 million across the country in the November elections. As one of the groups exploiting the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision to allow unlimited spending by corporations to influence election outcomes, it does not disclose its donors and it does not report its expenditures on so-called “issue ads.” It did run such ads in Wisconsin last fall.

    Americans for Prosperity has actively supported and promoted Scott Walker in a variety of ways. It featured him at its tea party rally in Wisconsin in September 2009, when he was running for the Republican nomination for governor. Americans for Prosperity also ran millions of dollars in ads on a “spending crisis” (a crisis it did not run ads against when Republicans were spending the multi-billion dollar budget surplus into a multi-trillion dollar deficit), and it selected Wisconsin as one of the states for those ads in the months before the election. It also funded a “spending revolt” tour in Wisconsin last fall through its state “chapter.”

    Just how much money has Americans for Prosperity and its Wisconsin counterpart spent on issue ads or promoting Walker over the past two years is one of the questions for this weekend’s orchestrated “Stand with Walker” event.

    The Return on Investment?

    Some things are known, though. Koch money helped get Scott Walker the governor’s seat in Wisconsin. And now a major Koch-related group is spearheading the defense of Walker’s radical plan to kill public employees’ right to organize in Wisconsin. The question is whether an actual majority of Wisconsin citizens want two of the richest men in the world, who do not live here — and who, as Lee Fang has pointed out, have eliminated jobs in this state — to be playing such an influential role in the rights of working people here.

    The Kochs assert that they do not “direct” the activities of Americans for Prosperity or the Tea Party. No, they just fuel them with their riches from the oil business they inherited from their daddy.

    And they did not vote for Scott Walker in the traditional sense in a democracy. Rather, as the Republican Governors Association spells out, they “invested” in him.

    What is the return desired for their investment? It looks like the first dividend Walker wants to pay, through the help of the Koch-subsidized cheerleaders from Americans for Prosperity, is a death knell for unions and the rights of workers to organize. But tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens have stood up this week to say this ROI will not be paid, that their rights will not be the price Walker exacts from them in return for the largess the Kochs have shown him as the anointed instrument of their agenda in this state.

  2. Extraordinary work Elaine, thank you very much.

    Two things are obvious, the MSM are superfluous and the Congressional Democrats and the President have made themselves superfluous with their absence from this fight.

    There is right now a budget battle raging in Washington over the nations budget. The House has purposely dicked around for 2 full months with distracting, culture-war legislation instead of a budget or jobs programs and the Democrats have remained silent. We now have a two week window to pass a continuing resolution or a budget in order to keep much of the government functioning.

    The Republicans in the House have played these game in order to serve up a last minute continuing resolution for a two week period that has many draconian cuts to social and regulatory programs and they want it passed in a last minute, crisis atmosphere. If it’s passed The time crunch is transfered to the Senate and the same game goes on. The cuts in whatever is passed will be the departure point for even deeper cuts in the actual proposed budget and that too will be debated and passed in a last minute, crisis atmosphere.

    It’s how all important, taxpayer raping legislation is passed. People will vote and tell us later that they didn’t have time to read it as they did with the bailout and the healthcare legislation.

    But here’s what I don’t understand. Wisconsin is IMO the perfect departure point for a unified and relentless push-back by Democrats and the President against the Republican economic agenda at the national level. Democrats couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity yet they not only haven’t taken the two weeks of basic economic conflict and used it as the daily example of Republican greed and hatred for the working class, they seem to have hidden from it.

    Wisconsin is the perfect, tailor made fulcrum for the Democrats to lever not only the public’s perception over the national budget but to (try to) demand concessions from the Republicans over programs that benefit working families and the working class in general including job stimulus legislation. Wisconsin, a decent wage, a strong retirement and health coverage, increased jobs and decent education as a right should be the lead story at every days press briefing from the White House. Yet it’s not. The Democrats aren’t touching it.

    And neither are the Republicans that I’ve read. These events seem to be hands off at the national level. One would think that the Democrats have the most to lose if the public unions are destroyed so why is neither party making Wisconsin an issue?

    This is an excellent site for union coverage numbers, use the left hand column to find excel and html lists of union membership by type within states and metro areas:

    http://www.unionstats.com/

  3. From Energy Boom
    KOCH INDUSTRIES DONATES $1 MILLION TO PROP 23 EFFORT TO KILL CALIFORNIA CLIMATE LAW
    BY EBOOM CONTRIBUTOR ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
    http://wind.energyboom.com/policy/koch-industries-donates-1-million-prop-23-effort-kill-california-climate-law

    Excerpt:
    David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers bankrolling the front groups behind the Tea Party and climate denial movement, have added another ’cause’ to their philanthropic endeavors, donating $1 million to the Proposition 23 fight to kill California’s landmark 2006 climate change legislation.

    Koch subsidiary Flint Hills Resources LP handled the laundry duties on this one, but the directive surely came from the heads of the Kochtopus empire – billionaires David and Charles Koch.

    The Kochs have found themselves under an uncomfortable spotlight lately after a thorough investigation by The New Yorker revealed the brothers’ extensive funding of a network of groups that catapulted the ‘grassroots’ Tea Party into play, as well as their financial backing of a sprawling network of climate denier groups that makes even ExxonMobil blush.

    The Los Angeles Times blog ‘Greenspace’ first reported Flint Hills Resources donation towards the Proposition 23 bill last night, noting that the effort was launched by two other oil industry players, Texas-based refinery companies Valero Energy and Tesoro Corp.

    The Kochs have lost much of the anonymity they enjoyed over the past several decades in the political world. Ever since David Koch’s disastrous performance in the 1980 elections when he bought his way onto the Libertarian Party’s ticket as Vice Pr

  5. Elaine,

    Been gone all weekend so just now catching up. Much reading to do before commenting. Thanks for starting a new thread and for all the in-depth research you are doing.

    I am now going to starting following the links, watching the vids and reading the comments.

    Atta Girl! 🙂

  6. From Think Progress (10/16/2009)
    Maddow Calls Out Americans for Prosperity President: ‘Parasite Who Gets Fat On Americans’ Fears’
    By Lee Fang
    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/16/afp-corporate-parasites/

    Excerpt:
    In May, the Wonk Room first reported on the sordid history of Republican operative Tim Phillips — who now heads the front group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) — with respect to his long history of orchestrating “grassroots” lobbying efforts for nefarious corporate and political clients. For example, Phillips helped run a “religious and pro-family” campaign for Enron’s largely successful attempt to achieve energy deregulation policies, and in another campaign used anti-Semitic attacks against Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) during Cantor’s first run for Congress.

    Last night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called Phillips out for using deceptive tactics and fear in his campaigns, noting in particular his role in creating the ads which portrayed former Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) — a triple amputee and Vietnam war veteran — as a terrorist sympathizer. Phillips stood by every single example of his work for his Republican and corporate clients, adding that he indeed does believe Cleland didn’t have the “courage to lead on the war on terror.”

    Maddow extracted confessions from Phillips that he had in fact worked for a Jack Abramoff client to pressure members of Congress to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands — where Chinese workers were forced into prostitution and mandatory abortions — subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. Even given the deplorable conditions at the sweatshops, Phillips was unrepentant. “I don’t have an issue with it,” said Phillips, adding, “I’m not going to disown it.”

    Phillips defended his methods with a curious argument. He disregarded the morals of his tactics, then explained that no matter what his organization says, who funds them, and how they operate, he and his corporate backers have every right to be “involved in the process.” Maddow conceded that point, but asserted that AFP’s fear-mongering and lying is simply bad for the country:

    MADDOW: And I have to tell you, because we’re making this about you and me, is that I personally think that you and the folks who do what you do are a parasite who gets fat on Americans’ fears.

    AFP, which was founded and is currently funded by David Koch of the Koch Industries oil refining empire, maintains a variety of mini-front groups to attack progressive labor efforts, clean energy legislation, and most recently, health reform. AFP places multimillion dollar ad buys knocking reform, employs dozens of high level Republican operatives planning “grassroots” events, and rents buses crisscrossing the country to shuttle anti-reform speakers to their rallies.

  7. From Think Progress (5/29/2009)
    Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory
    By Lee Fang
    http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/

    Excerpt:
    The rate at which the Koch Industries funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) churns out front groups to promote its right-wing corporate agenda sets the organization out among similar conservative “think tanks.” This week, AFP created their latest front group called “Patients United Now,” an entity set up to defeat health care reform. Patients United follows a familiar pattern AFP has used for their other front groups: create a new stand alone website, fill it with lines like “We are people just like you” to give the site a grassroots feel, and then use the new group to recruit supporters and run deceptive advertisements attacking reform. This “astroturfing” model has been used by AFP to launch groups pushing distortions against other progressive priorities:

    – The “Hot Air Tour” promoting global warming skepticism and attacking environmental regulations.
    – “Free Our Energy,” a group promoting increased domestic drilling.
    – The “Save My Ballot Tour,” a group that pays Joe the Plumber to travel around the country smearing the Employee Free Choice Act.
    – “No Climate Tax,” a group dedicated to the defeat of Clean Energy Economy legislation.
    – “No Stimulus,” a group launched to try to stop the passage of the Recovery Act.

    Notably, AFP was also instrumental in orchestrating the anti-Obama, anti-tax tea party protests in April.

    With nearly 70 Republican operatives and former oil industry spokesmen working behind the scenes of AFP’s various fronts and disclosures that point to ever increasing oil and corporate donations to the group, one must wonder, who is guiding this massive front group factory? The answer is Tim Phillips, the President of AFP who has built a long career of inventing fake grassroots causes. In Phillips’ official biography, there appears to be over a 10 year gap — but that period was when Phillips developed his very first astroturf groups to do everything from smearing his opponents with anti-Semitic attacks to laundering money for criminal lobbyists.

  10. I am struck by the difference in organization and reporting between the tax day outbreak of teabagging and the pro-union rallies this weekend – I know that it was on short notice, but you’d think that MoveOn.org or the SEIU could have given MSNBC a call and they could have pre-empted a couple of hours of Lockup, right? Surely Ed Schultz would have given up his Saturday to report on this? They could have at least mentioned it on their Friday night shows…

    Hopefully events will show that grassroots movements are more effective in the end than astroturf movements, but right now it certainly seems like you get what you pay for in terms of media coverage…

  16. From Salon (2/27/2011)
    Labor wins the day in Wisconsin
    Police change course and say demonstrators can stay another night, and a GOP senator opposes Walker’s union-busting
    by Joan Walsh
    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2011/02/27/wisconsin_rallies_just_get_bigger/index.html

    Excerpt:
    I’m not going to pretend to be dispassionate about the Wisconsin protests. The first civil disobedience I ever witnessed personally was in Madison in 1978, when I was covering a protest at the Board of Regents meeting, where students demanded the regents divest the university’s holdings in South Africa. I got maced by police in a stairwell just doing my job, but I was thrilled we were among the first universities to divest. I’ve been a proud Badger ever since.

    All these years later, I’ve been thrilled by the growing protest movement against Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting in Wisconsin. This weekend, though, it was hard to indulge my obsession. Although an estimated 100,000 people gathered at the capitol in Madison, including West Wing star and Wisconsin native Bradley Whitford, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and a contingent of off-duty and retired Wisconsin cops (who aren’t directly hit by Walker’s plan), the mainstream media barely paid attention. And on Sunday, when state police warned they’d clear the capitol of protesters at 4 pm local time, and at least 1,000 pledged to commit civil disobedience to stay put – including off-duty cops and firefighters and former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin – well, you had to tune into Twitter and a couple of Ustream live feeds to find out what was happening.

    I really don’t get it. CNN embedded reporters with Tea Party protests last year, but the struggling network couldn’t be bothered with live coverage of the weekend’s events. Even before Oscar red carpet coverage took over on Sunday, CNN was rerunning the same canned piece on the model Iman it had run Saturday. MSNBC was hopeless, running its canned crime documentaries all day long as usual. Fox News was more reliable; of course it covered the protests, since it does actual news on the weekends, but the network found anger and even violence where no one else did. (A Fox reporter claimed he was slugged off camera, but there was no other confirmation of the assault.) Things got really crazy when the AFL-CIO live stream failed, and organizers couldn’t get back their internet connection. For a while the only way to follow the goings on in the capitol was via activist Ben Brandzel’s phone-cam and bloggers on site. It was great to hear the crowd sing “The Star Spangled Banner” and “We Shall Overcome,” widening the appeal beyond the beloved labor hymn “Solidarity Forever.” Andrew Kroll of Mother Jones kept up a live stream of photos from the Sunday rally, including this great one of a friendly cop chatting up a wildly dressed protester.

    In the end Sunday night, state police officials told reporters that no one peacefully protesting would be removed from the capitol by force. About an hour later, the crowd cheered the news that Republican State Sen. Dale Schultz announced he would not back Walker’s bill. Democrats still need two more Republicans to block Walker’s move, but the momentum seems to be on the side of the unions right now. The mainstream media missed a great story Sunday. It reminds Paul Krugman of the way the media also ignored the massive protests before the 2003 Iraq war. It’s really depressing.

  17. The Koch Brothers are dirty tax dodging scoundrels! I always get a kick out of Pat Buchanan. One of these days Pat might actually wake up and realize that no one cares about the crap that he spews. I wonder if he got a 1099 from the Koch brothers?

  18. And you are most welcome, Elaine.

    One lives to be of service, you dear one, are a living inspiration.

    Any assistance I have offered pales in comparison to your efforts here.

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