Dispelling More Koch Brothers Hysteria

We already spent time a couple of days ago discrediting the argument that the Koch brothers, private businessmen who have spent money donating to conservative and libertarian causes, would benefit from the termination of collective bargaining agreements for public sector unions. Even progressive friends of mine have admitted the Koch brothers have nothing to gain from this personally. The attacks on the Koch brothers are a distraction, an effort to put the target of public outrage anywhere but where it squarely belongs in Wisconsin - on the money funneled from taxpayers to unions.

The latest charge against the Koch brothers involvement in Wisconsin politics is even more mysterious and conspiratorial, but just as easy to disprove. This charge revolves around a provision in the proposed legislation allowing the governor to sell Wisconsin power plants without going through a competitive bidding process first, supposedly allowing Koch Industries to purchase them on the cheap.

Is there evidence that Koch Industries is interested in purchasing these plants or that they will be sold at discount rates? Of course not. Just like the Left attempted to connect Jared Lee Loughner and the shooting of Gabby Giffords to Sarah Palin's map, this is once again an imaginary line between two dots only liberals can see.

But let's indulge them and use our critical thinking skills to dissect this conspiracy for a second. Are we really supposed to believe that out of the two million dollars the Koch brothers spent contributing to candidates nationwide during the 2010 election, their priority was getting some cheap power plants in Wisconsin for a mere donation of $43,000 to Scott Walker? As John Hinderaker points out, that's one-tenth of 1% of what was spent on Wisconsin's gubernatorial campaign. In Democratic circles, that's not even enough to get Rahm Emanuel to take a phone call.

Speaking of phone calls, union goons and leftist supporters point to a prank phone call Scott Walker took from a progressive blogger posing as a Koch brother as proof of the cozy relationship with the governor. I argue it's just the opposite. If you have a cozy relationship with someone, you don't stay on the phone for twenty minutes with an imposter because you would know the person's voice and speaking style. In fact, Scott Walker has never met the Koch brothers, which is not something that can be said of President Obama and billionaire financier George Soros. No conservative blogger could pull off the same stunt by calling the White House and posing as Soros or AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, because the White House really does have a cozy relationship there.

Finally, if we assume the Left's false accusation that this is a corporate handout, why put it in such a controversial bill that is going to get so much media attention? Why not sneak it into something the Legislature's going to pass with flying colors and won't send Democratic lawmakers fleeing the capitol building? The two issues are unrelated.

The hypocrisy of the Left hyperventilating over an imagined quid pro quo for a few thousand dollars when there is so much evidence of billion dollar paybacks to campaign contributors by Barack Obama in the stimulus, auto bailouts, and health care legislation is revealing. Democrats are projecting.

This is more faux outrage by the very people who call for more civility while acting less civil, who promise more transparency while making government less transparent,  and who believe they have every right to your personal wealth and property, just don't you dare touch theirs. There's still no honor among thieves.