Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting To Beat Obama

[kpete]

Amanda Terkel
Ryan Grim

Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting To Beat Obama

First Posted: 02/ 3/2012 3:43 pm Updated: 02/ 3/2012 3:53 pm

WASHINGTON -- At a private three-day retreat in California last weekend, conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and about 250 to 300 other individuals pledged approximately $100 million to defeat President Obama in the 2012 elections.

A source who was in the room when the pledges were made told The Huffington Post that, specifically, Charles Koch pledged $40 million and David pledged $20 million.

The semi-annual, invitation-only meeting attracts wealthy donors, Republican politicians and conservative activists. Last year, hundreds of activists gathered outside the walled-off resort to protest the meeting. This year, however, the conference went off quietly.

"Conference organizers and their guests successfully slipped in and out of the Coachella Valley without being detected, by buying out nearly all of the 500-plus rooms at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort in Indian Wells," reported The Desert Sun. "The resort closed its restaurants, locked down the grounds with private security guards and sent many workers home."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/koch-brothers-100-million-obama_n_1250828.html

[virgogal]

1. I find it so sad that this is what it has come to. MONEY !!

[nanabugg]

30. How far would that money go to help some school districts? These people are shameful. nt

[INdemo]

32. yes..we need new computer labs in all of our schools

and it is a shame to see this money wasted just because they want to elect someone that will help these beillionaires make maore money by not taxing what they already have....terrible...
..Looks like they are spending millions to go down in a landslide defeat......

[DCKit]

64. I cried last night when it was reported that a local student....

won a design competition and a $25K scholarship for designing a prom dress. A great dress, not a sleazy dress.

In what Republican world would she even have access to an education relating to the arts? Half a day at high school, half a day at the design academy.

She not only inspired those closest to her, she inspired thousands of kids.

[24601]

83. Reminds me of Soros saying his $5M was sufficient because Kerry had it won.

[Happyhippychick]

2. Good, waste your money. Obama will not lose.

[newspeak]

85. yeah, I hope they lose their fekkin money

I'm tired of corporate-elite interests being put above the majority of the american people. money buys influence, and those on the hill have made sure their friends have kept and made obscene profits bilking the plebes. Meanwhile, back on mainstreet, people have lost their homes, some are in the streets and those decent jobs are disappearing with every "right to work" scam perpetrated by corporate owned politicians.

[applegrove]

3. That is just going to activate the 99% OWSer within people.

[targetpractice]

12. It's a really neat and tidy story unfolding, right?

We are fortunate OWS began laying the groundwork months ago using comparatively zero dollars.

[applegrove]

16. We are lucky OWS layed the groundwork for some of the people thinking for their own dam selves

for once in a long, long time. They will resent the republican "reality" imposed from on high that all that koch money will buy.

[Blue Owl]

4. How nice they have hundreds of millions to flush down the toilet

Now, if only that toilet would back up and cause the Koch's to drown in their own sewage...

[think]

5. Isn't it time to push the boycott of Koch Industry products?:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/08/24/895947/-Boycott-Koch-Products

[Deep13]

13. +1 nt

[klook]

82. Thanks for the reminder

Glad to confirm that I am already not using any of these products, having made sure a few years ago.

[OKNancy]

6. I do think that Obama will probably win, but it sure makes me uneasy

No telling what horrible things they will make up about the President.
I hope the Democrats can have some sugar-daddies too, or people will donate to the re-elect fund.
I've put myself down for $15.00 a month.

[emulatorloo]

8. Have you been listening to Mitt Romney's speeches?

He's been telling the most horrible lies about Obama. It is truly going to be horrendous this year.

[slay]

34. +1

i'm not a huge Obama fan - but the republican attacks have nothing to do with policy - the repubs are just truly horrible, mean, hateful people.

[Art_from_Ark]

76. You can say that again!

Long gone are the days when there were honorable and decent Republican politicians, like Governor Winthrop Rockefeller of Arkansas, and Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois.

[OKNancy]

36. yes, and it makes my blood boil

the one about the worst economy of all time was almost as bad as the one where he said Obama doesn't understand the American spirit ( ie..America= he is not one of us )
At first I thought Romney was kind of pablum. Now he is Limburger cheese.

[lastlib]

78. I'm coming to think of him as raw untreated sewage, myself...n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

52. For the most part

The people who believe the type of lies he's been telling aren't ones who would be voting for Obama. They're the voters who respond with hysteria to stimuli such as these lies, but they're not the type who vote in their own better interest or with their rational mind.

So far he's not managed to do any real lasting damage that I've seen.

[lastlib]

79. That could get him a majority in the Electoral College unless we ALL kick up our game!

[Kablooie]

56. Its probably going to make us all sick as well.

That money is going to create a tsunami of dirty political propaganda that we will be drowning in for months to come. We will be exposed to it day and night, everywhere we go. It's not going to be pleasant.

[MattSh]

59. Well, with the Dems tendency to...

snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, everybody should be uneasy.

[vanboggie]

7. Most likely to cover costs of flipping votes

and intimidating voters. These criminals sure know how to do it.

[sotired]

65. They'll be buying votes allright

they'll be paying off vote counters. Filthy, dirty scum need to be arrested for treason and crimes against democracy.

[patrice]

9. Stalin would be proud of the autocracy he founded in their fortune. nt

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. good news to me. Obama may put up a bigger fight to expose theses plutocrats.

[99th_Monkey]

43. Exactly! The more transparently mean and nasty the Rethugs rhetoric becomes,

the more it liberates Obama to re-align himself with a much broader base,
that extends way further to the left than it might otherwise.

Let them strut and huff and puff, the more the better. Bring it on.

It will only push Obama to do what he should have been doing from day one,
close Gitmo, clean up Wall St., reverse Citizens United, go for Public Option
with a vengence, call GOP out on wanting to destroy Soc Security and Medicare,
etc.

[asjr]

11. They will use that money to blackmail

the voting machines.

[young_at_heart]

14. I feel like I need to vomit!

These people are completely lacking in any kind of morality.

[katsy]

15. Good

Fools and their $$$$ etc...

I hope they pledge twice that.

President Obama will win hands down anyway.

The 2 top front runners are a joke. They are as stupid as the people funding them.

[lastlib]

80. "All that is needed for the forces of evil to win...

...is for enough good men to do nothing."

[drm604]

17. This is what is meant by the expression "more money than brains".

What the hell is up with the Kochs? Seriously.

The results of this election won't make any difference to their lives. Regardless of who wins, they're going to continue to have more money than they'll ever need, to have any luxury they want, any time they want it.

So why the hell go throwing this kind of money around trying to thwart the will of the people? And that is what they're doing. They're not willing to let the people speak. They want to make sure that it goes their way regardless of what the people want.

WHY? What difference does it make to them? Enjoy your damned money and leave the rest of us alone, dammit!

[Brigid]

68. One word:

POWER. It's highly addictive.

[graywarrior]

18. Bring it on.

[11 Bravo]

19. Poor David. He clearly has the smaller "Koch".

[glinda]

20. They will make this very very ugly. It will be worse than any of us can imagine.

[KrazeeKrewe]

21. All the Koch Brothers will manage to do is...

...stimulate the economy more with that $100 million making Obama look better.

[McCamy Taylor]

22. The Kochs must be desperate. Are they about to do an Enron?

Enron pulled out all the stops to get W. selected because they knew they were on the verge of bankruptcy.

[Bossy Monkey]

23. "Pardon me, Mack, is this the way to the Coachella Valley and the big carrot festival, therein?"

Geez, Kochs, thanks for the stimulus package! You still have to run with these stinker candidates, and spending all that money will just make the economy bounce back faster. You should pledge NOT to spend any money. That'll beat him for sure!

[spooky3]

24. That money probably belongs to American employees

Who were underpaid or laid off in order to boost these zillionaires' incomes.

It's yet more evidence of what is wrong with our systems.

[rocktivity]

25. You One Percenters have all the money, but we 99 Percenters have all the VOTES

and Mitt is the ULTIMATE One Percenter!


rocktivity

[FailureToCommunicate]

31. The Old School part of me REALLY wants to believe this is true

The cynical part wonders how much it would cost to have Diebold make the GOP win... everywhere.

[bluedigger]

26. It's good that they are so secure in their conceit.

Since Obama's opponent has yet to be chosen, they obviously assume that they will be in the Kochs' pockets, regardless.

[OVERPAID01]

55. Bluedigger, that is an excellent point.

They don't even know who will be running for the president, Romney is unlikely to win the south on his own. I wonder if the Kochs would renege if Ron Paul suddenly shot to the top due to a Romney screw up.

[stevenleser]

72. But they do know that. Regarless of obfuscation, GOP's reason for being is the 1%.

They have adopted social positions and various other positions to help try and get them to 50.1% in elections but the real reason they are there is to funnel money and power to the 1%. That is there entire reason for being.

As that is the case, the Koch brothers are secure in knowing that whoever the GOP nominates, it will be their guy. That person would do exactly what 'W' and Reagan did on their first day in office. THey would have a list of regulations provided by the 1% that they would throw aside via executive order. The death of those regulations alone will put millions more money in the hands of the 1%.

[Faygo Kid]

27. How much will they pay Clarence Thomas to vote their way?

Not that he's the only justice who can be bought, just the most likely.

[nxylas]

58. Do they need to pay him?

I'd have thought he'd vote their way regardless, for ideological reasons.

[harun]

28. 1 percenters

[chowder66]

29. Meg Whitman Wannabes! ha!

[slay]

33. If we don't get big money out of our elections - our future is looking very grim

granted it might not work for them this year since all the republicans are so horrible - but we HAVE to get big money out of our elections and stop selling our representatives to the highest bidder.

[Generic Other]

35. New loofah for O'Rielly, new facelift for Greta, more oxycontin for Rush

koolaid for the WHOLE gang.

And of course nothing expected in return from these pandering whores.

[Jack Rabbit]

37. All well and good as far as I'm concerned

Let those two Birch-backgrounded bastards flush money down the toilet on their favorite member in the clown car. It just reduces the ammunition they use to destroy America.

[workinclasszero]

38. More proof that we have a government

of the 1%, by the 1% and for the 1%!

RISE UP 99% before its too late!

[libodem]

39. Job Creators

My ass.

[a kennedy]

40. D*mn I hate these guys......it's always been about the money.

[DaveJ]

41. That's nothing. $100M is just the cost of a private party

All that is is an old fashioned billionaire circle jerk, why else would they need to be so private about it.

They care more about their personal interests than whoever is President. That's just branding. There's more going on under the surface, like insider trading and creating oligopolies.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

42. Koch = scum of the Earth

scum on the bath tub is actually nicer than the Kochs

[MMJjestic]

44. So will Rachel, Ed or others talk about this?

Will KO talk about this, whenever he will show up on his show? Word has to get out, remember this $100 million dollar donation, isn't going to some basement operation run by film school flunkies, this is going to be the smoothest of propaganda pieces that will make Goebbels look like a rank amateur.

[Initech]

45. Attention IRS!!! Tax the shit out of these asswipes!!!

If they can pay $100 million on a campaign, they can pay their fair share.

[edbermac]

46. Note to the Koch suckers - picture this happening to all your money.

[fascisthunter]

47. Good.... They Make OWS even more Relevant

[elleng]

48. And they have a candidate, right?

[Botany]

49. And the Koch Brothers promised to protect Kasich's SB 5 ....

.... and protect Walker from a recall too. They have the money but we have the #s.

But last fall in Ohio when it was a done deal that SB 5 was going to be beat they took
their money and left the state.

ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE

[lunasun]

50. how many voting machines does that buy?

only way they gonna win - well that + voter id law over enforcement maybe

[Zoeisright]

51. Fuck them.

With something uncomfortable.

[BlueMTexpat]

53. All the more reason to let the Bush tax cuts lapse.

If these people have so much money to throw away (and failing the entire country taking leave of its senses and not re-electing Prez Obama, this money will indeed be "thrown away&quot , why not throw it to something that might actually make the country better for everyone - like education or infrastructure improvement? Or even funding health care programs to help states make ends meet?

Nah, it is clear that the RW does not want a democracy, but a continuing return to feudalism.

[OVERPAID01]

54. Greed and Power go hand in hand.

It isn't enough to have more money than they can possibly need, they just plain want to own everything including the presidency.

[eyewall]

57. There oughta be a law...

[Maineman]

60. Life is way too easy for the Koch brothers!

[atreides1]

61. Darn

And no Predator nearby! These people are the real enemies of this country!!!

[sulphurdunn]

62. That works out to about

$400,000 a head, not counting the cost of renting the hotel and its amenities. So much for secret meetings. It is nice to know what you're up against though. Forewarned is forearmed.

[JCMach1]

63. Boycott all Koch products in an organized way...

[UCmeNdc]

66. 100 Million buys a Mitt Romney presidency.....

100 Million buys a lot of things. Including your very own President of the United States.

[Trajan]

74. Do you really think that mere money can buy Mittens the WH ?

Hell .... Even Republicans hate voting for him ....

Ain't gonna work this time - The damage is too great to overcome, even with filthy lucre in hand ...

[lonestarnot]

67. The stench of ALEC early in the morning.

[Raster]

69. Thank you, Cock Brothers. My committment to the re-election of President Barrack Obama....

...is now greater than ever before. Thank you.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

70. Well

gambling IS still legal in this country.

Sucks that all that money can't go to a more, shall we say, worthwhile cause?

[marias23]

71. A High Asset Lynching

to paraphrase...

[Trajan]

73. We can top that .... Democratic Party supporters can easily top that ....

And we will .... The GOP is in a hopeless condition this year .... Koch/TeaHadist policies have ruined the GOP brand, and THEY are the reason the GOP have lost large segments of moderates and independents .... Obama has barely gotten started, and he already has some $80,000,000 in the bank ..... Fret not kiddies - We are gonna be alright ...

[kiranon]

75. A fool and his money are soon parted. n/t

[cppuddy]

77. they only have pledged the money

They only pledged the money; it doesn't mean it will ever get delivered. They will dole it out a little at a time; if they don't see it getting results; it will dry up. They are cheap bastards and they will fold operations if they see they are going to loose. It all has to do with ego with these people. They are so out of touch with reality; they believe that they can buy and bend 100 % of everything to their will. And when they don't get their way; they take their balls and go home. Just as politicians live in a bubble; the rich live in a bigger myopic bubble. They don't see the world as everyday people do. They don't have to struggle everyday to live and deal with normal everyday things. This is their outlet for being board with life; they have all the money in the world; and nothing left to accomplish. This is just one big diversion to them;one big chess game. So they suround themselves with people that inflate their egos and their fantacies of power. And those people are all to happy to take their money. The Koch bastards are in their mid to late seventies, they don't have many years left, so this is their last hoora. They can spend all they want; that money means nothing to them. Rest assured they will be left with nothing in the end. Two old bitter men, with dillusions of self worth.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

81. See what the 1% do with their wealth.

[KansDem]

84. "Job Destroyers"

Conference organizers and their guests successfully slipped in and out of the Coachella Valley without being detected, by buying out nearly all of the 500-plus rooms at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort in Indian Wells," reported The Desert Sun. "The resort closed its restaurants, locked down the grounds with private security guards and sent many workers home.

So restaurant employees and other workers were "sent home?" Probably got the day off with pay...right?

[Arkana]

86. You can pour as much money into RoboMitt as you want, boys

but at the end of the day he's still just a wooden, stiff, wealthy elitist snob who hates poor people and is having more and more difficulty disguising that fact each day.

[Quantess]

87. Hmmm. Interesting.

[Obama3_16]

88. well, I can keep giving money to Obama in $50 increments and try to help others do the same. Power

of numbers. And having the Koch brothers front and center as the real opposition to Obama will make it so much easier for Dems to crush that empty suit, Romeany