Mark Holden, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Koch Industries: "We’re not asking for empathy or sympathy – we’re big boys and we can take it."
Let it be clear: If you work for the Koch Brothers at their company's legal team, chances are you may not be much of a lawyer to begin with. If you can't get your information right, what makes you an efficient lawyer who can defend Koch Industries?
The chief lawyer for Koch Industries said Friday that government targeting of conservative political groups is nothing new to the Wichita-based company.
Chief legal counsel Mark Holden said the White House, as early as August 2010, was deliberately trying to politically intimidate Koch Industries.
Holden said that although he had no direct evidence that the White House had any involvement in targeting Koch for IRS tax scrutiny, he pointed to what he described as a “disturbing” comment about taxes and Koch Industries made by one of President Obama’s political advisers, Austan Goolsbee, at a White House briefing in August 2010.
Ok. So the White House has been deliberately trying to politically intimidate Koch Industries but all the evidence you can make is a comment that Mr. Goolsbee made nearly three years ago during a period which the Tea Party was a few months away from helping the GOP win control of the House and several other Governor's offices in the U.S.
Here's the actual White House briefing that Mark Holden makes reference to:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
During a conference call with reporters in August, Goolsbee, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, identified Koch Industries as an example of a “multibillion- dollar business” that uses a tax structure originally intended to benefit small businesses.
Those structures, including partnerships and S- corporations, don’t pay corporate-level tax and are at the heart of a broader debate over whether tax rates scheduled to increase in January will hurt “small business.”
Not sure what is so offensive to Holden or anyone in Koch industries about what Goolsbee said. In my view, based on the information Goolsbee provided, Koch Industries was taking advantage of a tax structure that's supposed to support small businesses.
And this is where Holden seems to interpret tax fairness as interpretation of government intimidation. Ooooh, isn't this surprising coming from the Koch Bros and their minions?
But it's not surprising that Holden appears on, you guessed it, Fox News last year to argue his case for why the Koch Industries is getting so worked up over this supposed "intimidation."
And we know of course for very long that the Koch Brothers have bankrolled the Tea Party and even CNN knows about this. Guess Mark Holden doesn't want to bring that up. Not in his best interest of course.
It appears, Holden, like so many defenders in the Koch Brothers circle, seems to make rather preposterous arguments over this supposed government intervention in business
affairs.
http://www.kansascity.com/...
Holden has publicly criticized the Goolsbee comments before.
“Some of what I do here reminds me sometimes of the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ where I have to do the same things over and over,” Holden joked.
But Holden said he isn’t joking in bringing up the Goolsbee situation again. He said that when he looks at what Goolsbee said in 2010 and puts it alongside what President Obama was saying about the Kochs in the same month, and puts that alongside the fact that the IRS recently admitted it targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, he sees, at minimum, a “disturbing” pattern of government intimidation.
Yeah. You know you can't make your argument effectively enough when you bring up one of Bill Murray's funniest films, Groundhog Day, in relationship to some of what Holden does. Clearly Holden saw the film but doesn't remember it was about Phil Connors (Bill Murray) living the same day over and over again, not doing the same things over and over.
And does Holden provide any evidence that the IRS scandal has anything to do with the Obama administration's method of intimidation? Of course he doesn't.
Holden said that although he had no direct evidence that the White House had any involvement in targeting Koch for IRS tax scrutiny, he pointed to what he described as a “disturbing” comment about taxes and Koch Industries made by one of President Obama’s political advisers, Austan Goolsbee, at a White House briefing in August 2010.
Maybe Holden doesn't pay much attention to IRS history. Perhaps Joy Reid ought to educate him: