Ad showing how great it is to work for the would-be shadow government Kochs.
The Kochs are apparently feeling the blowback from their efforts to buy a Congress that will do their bidding, and are
launching a new public relations effort with two aims: making them appear as warm and fuzzy patriotic job creators and attacking liberal groups. The
Washington Post reports:
In coming weeks, Koch Industries plans a fresh round of television ads casting itself as an all-American company with a diverse workforce—part of the first nationwide marketing campaign it has ever undertaken. The corporation is considering spots similar in concept to a Web video currently on its YouTube page in which military veterans who work at Koch Industries compare the values of the armed forces to those of the company. […]
At the same time, the company is adopting a more confrontational approach in the political arena, seeking to undermine its antagonists on the left. In an organized effort on Capitol Hill this week, Koch’s Republican allies will shine a spotlight on a group of Democratic donors who finance a network of prominent liberal groups.
One longtime Koch Industries observer, Malcolm C. Harris Sr., a professor of finance at Friends University in Wichita, speculates that the brothers' extreme political activities might be proving a problem for them in recruiting and in successfully taking over other companies. Last year they bought an Illinois company, Molex, that produces iPhone parts. Harris told the
Post that "to acquire a company like that, you have to forge relations with a whole new set of employees. […] If the only thing they know is what they hear in the political arena, that’s going to be difficult." So they'll be releasing these ads demonstrating that Koch Industries is a fantastic place to work, so just forget about that whole taking-over-the-country part of their activities.
Meanwhile, they'll also be using their lackeys in Congress, like Sen. Ted Cruz, to point the finger at the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy progressives who spend money on progressive causes like Common Cause, Public Citizen, and People for the American Way—all of which are working to curtail the influence of dark money in politics. Cruz told the Post, that the "hypocrisy is stunning. [...] Senate Democrats have long been funded by a group of billionaires bent on maintaining their power, yet they pretend to be outraged," by the Kochs. Except for the fact that these big money liberals are using their money to actually try to reduce the influence their money has in politics. Democracy Alliance also isn't actually a pass-through for money. It advises its members, all of whom pledge to spend $200,000 a year, on where to put their money. Many of the organizations that get the funds disclose their donors. So there's that whole transparency thing that pretty much means that DA is really nothing like the Kochs.
Then there's this part: in the past nine years, members of the DA have contributed about $500 million to liberal organizations. In just this year alone, the Kochs will spend something like $290 million. In the 2012 cycle, they spent at least $407 million. In just two years, the Kochs dwarfed a decade's worth of spending by the DA.
If the Kochs think this will make Democrats back down, they're likely mistaken. The efforts of Harry Reid, other Democrats, and progressive media to expose the Kochs and their activities is clearly working and the Kochs are clearly afraid of the damage it will cause them.