The Times has a good story on the "secretive network of Republican donors" who are plotting the next election, writing about an invitation from Koch Industries to a network of the "ultrawealthy and the politically well-connected." They'll all be meeting in Palm Springs in January to plot how to take the White House.
What's missing from the Times story is told by ThinkProgress. The same documents that the Times used for their story shows the extent to which the Koch-led cabal is working together to steal this election.
While the Koch brothers — each worth over $21.5 billion — have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as "investors," and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch's election-planning event....
This included companies impacted by health reform and Wall Street reform, with a motive to roll back reform efforts that have already passed. TP gives the example of Bill Cooper, CEO of TCF Financial, a corporation involved in the mortgage banking industry who has filed a lawsuit challenging Wall Street reform. Big oil was represented, and "funding efforts to curb 'climate change alarmism' were discussed." Participants also "collaborated with infamous consultants who specialize in generating fake grassroots movements, as well as experts on how corporations should take advantage of Citizens United."
These groups aren't investing in a Republican-controlled Congress because of their political philosophy or ideology or their vision for America. They're doing it because it will maximize their own profits, the rest of America be damned. It's worked out pretty well for them, since they got the 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court and the greatest gift so far--Citizens United. That's the critical piece of the puzzle on the way to having Congress be a wholly owned subsidiary of the new robber barons.
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