Among the aspects kept secret about these meetings are "the identities of attendees and speakers, and even the locations and dates," according to Mother Jones. Among the reported guests: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sen. Jim DeMint, and Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Charles and David Koch own Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in America. Those familiar with the brothers know that they, in David Koch's own words, "provided the funds to start Prosperity For America."
That Americans For Prosperity works in line with the Tea Party is well documented, however the Koch Brothers deny any direct connection between themselves and the fringe political movement that helped give us a wonderful batch of Congress-people with sparkling reputations for promoting tolerance, progress, and love. And unicorns.
Although the billionaire financiers deny that their interest group has direct links to the Tea Party and other movements, the saying 'money talks' never rang so true. But when money talks, what exactly does it say?
For one, Charles Koch says, "We have Saddam Hussein. This is the mother of all wars." While there's always the chance that he isn't talking about President Obama with, let's be honest, a thinly disguised 'Hussein' double entendre. However, considering the seminar was geared toward raising funds for the 2012 election, the mother of all wars could mean little else.
Part 2 of the Mother Jones report was released today, and details in part the remarks of the keynote speaker, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Calling his state's Democrats "stupid," Christie brags about convincing them to axe pensions, and mocks his predecessor by mimicking his voice, among other shenanigans.
Texas Governor Rick Perry and Florida Governor Rick Scott also spoke, but Christie was unique in that he made no attempt to inform his constituents of his whereabouts.
Ironically, while chiding President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address, Christie remarks that the president "had failed the fundamental test of leadership, which I believe is to tell the people who hired you the truth."
He dramatized his decision to declare a state of financial emergency on behalf of the New Jersey government, which allowed him to "impound" $2.2 billion in spending. In the audio, he snidely says, "I thought it would be rude for me not to go down and tell that coequal branch of government what I had just done," and so he calls a joint session, informs them that "I fixed your problem," and walks out.
Whatever the dire straits of state governments, every constituency deserves politicians who respect the appropriate uses of power, and work branch-to-branch, not top down. That most certainly was not the founding fathers' intentions, of which Tea Party types like Christie are so wont to invoke.
When asked if he'd be running for president, he relented. However, this is exactly the type of place he needs to be in order to garner support for a future bid.
Uncooperative government officials are nothing new, but the Tea Party and GOP are making them the norm. The Koch Brothers are helping by financing, among interest groups and campaigns, seminars like these where brash politicians think they can loosen their lips without the media snapping at their tails.
They're wrong. For clips from the seminar and more about the Koch Brothers, go to Mother Jones' site.
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