Wow, what a great year to work as a political cartoonist in California, especially if you're also a columnist.
Back in January, a California state senator name Rod Wright was convicted on all eight counts in his trial for voter fraud and perjury. Just a few weeks later, another state senator from California, Ron Calderon, was indicted on two dozen (!) counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and other charges.
Koch brothers
By Jack Coleman | April 9, 2014 | 6:54 PM EDT
By Jack Coleman | April 8, 2014 | 7:36 PM EDT
"Koke adds life where there isn't any," warned the Clash about cocaine back in 1980, a year that shook the ground under American politics. The Koch -- pronounced "Koke" -- brothers, David and Charles (though not sibling Bill, for the time being) serve a comparably stimulative role for liberals in 2014, another election year with seismic potential.
In recent weeks, self-proclaimed working-class hero Ed Schultz has shown he can barely pass a waking hour without vilifying the cursed Kochs. Yesterday Schultz regurgitated a persistent leftist falsehood about them and did so in a way that showed he wasn't even sure about the claim. (Audio after the jump)
By Paul Bremmer | April 8, 2014 | 3:15 PM EDT
MSNBC talking heads spend a lot of time demonizing Republicans and conservatives, but on Monday’s PoliticsNation, frequent contributor Dana Milbank made that connection directly and compared the Koch brothers to demons.
Milbank and host Al Sharpton were discussing the verbal attacks on David and Charles Koch that many Democrats, especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, have carried out lately. Sharpton asked why Democrats were pushing this issue so hard, and Milbank responded, “Look, everybody knows that in politics, you need demons. And the Koch brothers are uniquely qualified to play that role. I mean, they couldn't be any better for it if they were carrying around pitchforks and had horns.”
By Paul Bremmer | April 4, 2014 | 5:17 PM EDT
Chris Matthews made a guest appearance Thursday on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation and showcased a hilarious lack of self-awareness regarding his network, especially his own show. The Hardball host sneered at the idea that a political campaign’s TV ads amount to free speech, insisting that they are no different than Coca-Cola commercials.
Matthews snarled:
Former NYT Reporter on GOP Donor Meeting: 'It’s Hard to Imagine a Political Spectacle More Loathsome'
By Clay Waters | March 31, 2014 | 6:18 PM EDT New York Times political correspondent turned left-wing editorial writer David Firestone unleashed a fiery attack on a GOP donor in an inflammatory nytimes.com post Monday afternoon: "The Line to Kiss Sheldon Adelson's Boots."
The very thought of Republican politicians speaking at a Las Vegas meeting of an Adelson-backed lobbying group made Firestone want to retch:
By Mark Finkelstein | March 27, 2014 | 8:21 AM EDT
At 63, Chuck Schumer can still dance—for awhile. But eventually, age or ambition caught up with the New York senator. On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough grilled Schumer over Harry Reid's accusation, uttered on the floor of the Senate, that the Koch brothers are "un-American."
For as long as he could, Schumer moonwalked away from Scarborough's question as to whether the Kochs are un-American. As one of Harry Reid's top lieutenants—and a lean and hungry senator who almost surely aspires to take Reid's leadership role when the opportunity arises—Schumer was on the spot. But Scarborough to his credit was relentless, and Schumer eventually wore down, making a distinction without a difference. Schumer asserted that the Kochs "actions" in running their run ads "absolutely" are "un-American." View the video after the jump.
By Tom Blumer | March 14, 2014 | 4:13 PM EDT
Washington Post "Fact Checker" blogger Glenn Kessler has given "Four Pinocchios" ("a whopper") to a pro-Democratic group's political ad opposing the U.S. Senate candidacy of Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy. The claim: The Koch Brothers, who are prominent financial supporters of the pro-GOP group Americans for Prosperity, want to protect, in the ad's words, “tax cuts for companies that ship our jobs overseas.”
Unfortunately, I have been told that Kessler's post did not make the paper's print edition; to no one's surprise, the Post has a tendency to give Kessler posts which fact-check Republicans greater print edition visibility. Additionally, at least one other Post writer and career race-baiter Al Sharpton have praised the anti-Koch ad and the strategy behind it. The likelihood that either will acknowledge Kessler's debunking is extremely low. Here are the key paragraphs from Kessler's work (bolds are mine throughout this post):
By Paul Bremmer | February 27, 2014 | 2:27 PM EST
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insulted victims of ObamaCare on Wednesday – and the three major networks didn’t seem to care.
Speaking on the Senate floor, the Nevada Democrat lashed out at those whose lives have been hurt by the law, saying this:
OpenSecrets.org Shows Koch Campaign Money Dwarfed by Dozens of Other Groups, Misclassifies Many As 'On the Fence'
By Tom Blumer | February 17, 2014 | 3:28 PM EST NOTE: Go to the end of this post to see my reaction to an email NB received from OpenSecrets.org.
The web site OpenSecrets.org has done a great deal of useful work. Especially helpful are its lists of high-dollar political campaign donor organizations.
The web site's 1989-2014 and 2012-specific lists, to name just two, demonstrate that the hyperventilating on the left and in the establishment press about the eeeevil Koch Brothers is completely out of line:
By Tom Blumer | February 8, 2014 | 9:59 PM EST
Leftist delusions can be amazing things. One of them is that the financial deck is stacked against their candidates and causes.
Reid Wilson at the Washington Post attempted to explain it all on Friday. On the plus side, at least he didn't try to pretend, as Evan Halper at the Los Angeles Times did in late December, that there's no one donating to Democrats and progressive causes with the financial clout of the Koch brothers except billionaire and relative newbie activist Tom Steyer. But while Wilson recognized the existence of large Dem donors, he bemoaned the fact that they are supposedly not as well organized, and that their motives, unlike the Kochs, are pure. Really (bolds are mine):
By Mike Ciandella | January 6, 2014 | 4:48 PM EST
The Washington Post slammed Charles and David Koch for their “political network” on the paper’s front page Jan. 6, but they partnered with a group funded by George Soros to get their information.
The Post proudly stated its partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a group they labeled “nonpartisan.” Nowhere in their 2,457-word hit job on the Kochs, did the Post mention CRP’s Soros funding or Soros’ similar network of organizations and media outlets he uses to influence politics and the economy.
By Sean Long | October 30, 2013 | 12:04 PM EDT
As Halloween approaches, many people devour scary stories and the annual celebration of fear. But the media doesn't reserve frightening tall tales for October, they promote fear all year long, especially over the dangers of climate change, guns and those who promote free-market capitalism.
Media outlets, along with the left, promote widespread fear of many individuals who disagree with them. The Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute came up with this list of five free-market people or groups the media and the left most commonly targeted with scary reports and remarks in the past year.