Harry Reid's
latest floor statement is certainly not going to be his last. Reid seems to be relishing his role as enemy number one of the Koch brothers, and is
happy to be the point man in Democrats' effort to expose the Koch brothers' efforts to buy themselves a Congress.
[Reid's] Koch rhetoric serves to spearhead a party-wide strategy aimed at highlighting the political influence of the brothers and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee repeatedly warns in fundraising solicitations that the Kochs' influence could tip the balance of the Senate as AFP pours millions into battleground states to pound Democrats.
Reid said that at this point, AFP has become even more powerful than Senate Republicans' official campaign arm.
"Senate Republicans hardly need the NRSC anymore, which decade after decade was their main funding tool for the Republican Senate. Not any longer. The Koch brothers take care of that," the Democratic leader said.
Democrats nationwide are joining Reid in taking on the Kochs. Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), a Senate candidate, has aggressively fought AFP's ads in Michigan and asked the organization to document its claims. Vulnerable Democratic incumbents are pushing back against the Kochs in campaign rhetoric and fundraising requests, with Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) warning that people "are not going to let the billionaire Koch brothers buy this seat."
Reid seems to really enjoy goading the Kochs, and it's working. For example, consider this statement from Philip Ellender, a Koch spokesman: "Senator Reid is attacking private citizens rather than the problems facing this nation. It is no wonder that Americans have lost faith in Congress." Rather than answering Reid's claim that the AFP is lying in their anti-Obamacare ads—which it is—the Kochs play the victim card. Of course. They've perfected victimhood; no mean feat for billionaires who basically control an entire political party, the House of Representatives, and the minority in the Senate.
At the very least, Harry Reid is going to make the next six months of campaigning a lot more fun. At the most, he'll do the very necessary work of exposing to the American people who the Koch brothers are.