The Charles Koch Campaign is Launched

A curious thing will be going on this election cycle. It appears that multi-billionaire Charles Koch will be sort of running a campaign of his own.

Charles appears to be coming out of the shadows. He just appeared in an interview this morning on CBS Sunday Morning and will appear tomorrow morning on CBS in part 2 of the interview.

A book by Charles will also, presidential style, be published, Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies. It will be available on Tuesday.

Friends, who understand thinking within the Koch empire, suggest that this may be the Finkinization of Charles. Long-time Koch operative Ritchie Fink has apparently been advocating that Charles go public and high profile for a very long time. They are close. The inside story is that when Fink, then living paycheck to paycheck, first met the billionaire for a job interview, he wore a polyester suit. Charles says he didn't mind since he likes products made of oil.

As for the book, the only thing we know about the book at this point comes from curious remarks from a professor on the Koch payroll.

It is not completely known what the end game is here though it is doubtful that Charles will be able to raise excitement about libertarianism the way Ron Paul did. Charles Koch and Ritchie Fink are not Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell.

And the fact that less excitement will be generated is probably a good thing. The Koch brothers brand of libertarianism is if it were to be described in terms of oil, more BCF-17 than Bintulu Condensate. That is heavy and not carrying the most desirable mix of elements,

It is noteworthy that the CBS Morning Show interview mentions both the Cato Institute and the Mercatus Center, both of which are Koch Brothers funded.

Cato Institute is, of course, where Keynesian aggregate demand thinking has been featured, where the gold standard gets dissed and where it was argued that Bernanke was not printing enough money,

Mercatus now houses Scott Sumner, who appears to be a decent guy, but who holds the view that we not only need a central bank to manage the money supply but that the Fed needs to pump money out, targetting nominal gross domestic product.

Bottom line, Charles does not appear to be an end the Fed kind of guy. His, suspect, full libertarian credentials come into further question given that he does not fund the most consistent Austrian economics organization, the Mises Institute. In other words, when we are talking libertarianism and Austrian economics as promoted by Charles, we are certainly talking a BCF-17 mix.

Below Charles on national television tells the world that he is a "classical liberal":

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- RW

PREVIEW Charles Koch on 'CBS Sunday Morning' This Sunday

It doesn't sound like the brothers have picked a candidate to support, yet.

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Walker's Campaign has called a 6 PM Presser

Is Koch Brothers' Horse Number 1 about to head back to the barn?

Walker's campaign has called a 6pm presser that has people buzzing… His campaign manager, Rick Wiley, is about to speak here at Google.

— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) September 21, 2015

UPDATE:

NYT reports Walker is quitting the presidential race.

UPDATE 2:

One last thought: Walker's timing is good. Word is he just avoided getting tied to a very bad story that could well have been coming.

— Liz Mair (@LizMair) September 21, 2015

Lew Rockwell on How the Koch Brothers Reacted to His Launching of the Mises Institutre

Lew writes:

After I asked Margit, Mises’s widow, for her blessing–which she gladly gave–I asked Murray to oversee our academic affairs. Even though the Institute was just a typewriter on my kitchen table at that point, he literally clapped his hands in glee. Also essential to the Institute’s success were Ron Paul, Henry Hazlitt, and other giants. I should note that the Kochs have always been anti-Mises Institute–they even had one of their executives order me not to start it!–though they are anti-Rothbard above all.

FIRST REPORT Two Warmongers Shine at Koch Event (Including Cruz Missile)

Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush drew the most applause among the five Republicans who took the stage at a luxury hotel in California this weekend, reports Zachary Mider for Bloomberg.

They were auditioning in front of hundreds of wealthy, conservative political donors assembled for a semi-annual retreat by the billionaires Charles and David Koch.

Mider has the blow-by-blow:

Cruz drew his first big cheer when he called global warming a fiction invented by liberals, and got more when he attacked Planned Parenthood, took credit for killing the Export-Import Bank, promised a campaign in the mold of Ronald Reagan's, and said he relished the thought of facing Hillary Clinton on a debate stage.

“I have yet to meet a person in America whose criticism of Congress is, 'You guys haven’t cooperated with Obama enough.' People are fed up,” said the former college debate-team champion, for another round of applause.

Unlike the three candidates who preceded him Saturday and earlier Sunday, Cruz drew a few dozen standing ovations as he left the stage, including from David Koch himself. The Koch brothers' favor is widely sought by Republican political candidates, both because of their personal wealth—they are both worth about $51 billion—and because of their influence with their network of donors dedicated to free-market causes.

Bush got not one, but two, rounds of applause for calling for an end to a ban on U.S. oil exports, and another one when he said the country is “on the verge of greatness.” And, asked about signing a pledge not to raise taxes as president, he said that as the Florida governor, “I cut taxes every year. I don't have to sign a pledge,” to more applause.

Virtually everyone stood up after Bush's speech, but it was unclear whether anyone thought he deserved an ovation. It was time for cocktail hour in another part of the hotel.

  -RW 

Trump Calls Out Koch Summit Candidate Attendees; Puppets?

I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2015

Koch Brothers Sit Down This Weekend in Southern California

We about to have a sit down

Wrap the phone up in plastic and stick it in the fridge

They know where we are, but they don't know what we did...

Hid in plain sight wear the suit and tie nice

Mason mean more than a brick layer...

All in favor for a favor for a favor

Any other matter we gon' bring it to the table

Organization gotta have communication.

-Kevin Gates

-

Four leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch (pronounced like the street name for cocaine "coke") brothers and hundreds of other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election, reports Politico.

P continues:

The gathering – which also will include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, but notably not Sen. Rand Paul — is hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs’ increasingly influential network of political and public policy outfits...

Freedom Partners’ annual summer conference is set for August 1 through August 3, and is expected to draw 450 of the biggest financiers of the right for sessions about the fiscally conservative policies and politics that animate the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and many of the donors in their network. Most have the capability to write seven- or even eight-figure checks to the super PACs fueling the GOP presidential primary, and a significant proportion have yet to settle on a 2016 choice, or are considering supporting multiple candidates. That includes Charles and David Koch, as well as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer, both of whom will be represented at the conference by advisers, and a number of other attendees of past conferences whose 2016 leanings are being closely watched.

Freedom Partners’ annual summer conference is set for August 1 through August 3, and is expected to draw 450 of the biggest financiers of the right for sessions about the fiscally conservative policies and politics that animate the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and many of the donors in their network. Most have the capability to write seven- or even eight-figure checks to the super PACs fueling the GOP presidential primary, and a significant proportion have yet to settle on a 2016 choice, or are considering supporting multiple candidates. That includes Charles and David Koch, as well as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer, both of whom will be represented at the conference by advisers, and a number of other attendees of past conferences whose 2016 leanings are being closely watched.

  -RW 

EXPOSE: Rand Paul's Downward Spiral

Politico is out with a major report on the problems inside the Rand Paul presidential camapign. The report falls in line with things I have been hearing from sources close to the campaign.

Alex Isenstadt writes at Politco:

Rand Paul, once seen as a top-tier contender, finds his presidential hopes fading fast as he grapples with deep fundraising and organizational problems that have left his campaign badly hobbled. 

Interviews with more than a dozen sources close to the Kentucky senator, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an underfunded and understaffed campaign beaten down by low morale.

They described an operation that pitted a cerebral chief strategist against an intense campaign manager who once got into a physical altercation with the candidate’s bodyguard. And they portrayed an undisciplined politician who wasn’t willing to do what it took to win — a man who obsessed over trivial matters like flight times, peppered aides with demands for more time off from campaigning, and once chose to go on a spring-break jaunt rather than woo a powerful donor...

At Paul’s campaign headquarters on Capitol Hill, morale has begun to sink. At least one key aide recently departed, and others have had conversations with rival campaigns.

“It’s such a negative environment,” said one Paul aide. “Everyone is on edge, and no one is having any fun. They need to recapture some of their positive mojo, and fast.”...

Easily the biggest problem confronting Paul is his fundraising – or lack thereof. Paul has taken in just $13 million, a fraction of what all his major rivals for the Republican nomination have raised and far less than Paul hoped.

Those close to Paul say there’s a simple reason for his lack of success: He’s simply not willing to do the stroking and courting that powerful donors expect. He’s downright allergic, they say, to the idea of forging relationships with people with the end goal of pumping them for dough. And while he’s had no shortage of opportunities to mix and mingle with some of the Republican Party’s wealthiest figures, Paul has expressed a frustration that donors want so much face time.

He’s even turned away the Koch brothers. When the billionaire industrialists convene their network of conservative benefactors in southern California this week, Republican candidates like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker will be in attendance. But Paul won’t be. The senator, the Koch summit’s baffled organizers said, turned down an invitation. Paul has said he will instead be campaigning in Iowa...

At times, Paul has simply seemed uninterested in playing the donor game. Earlier this year, the senator had agreed to speak at the Dialog Retreat, a gathering hosted by Auren Hoffman, a prominent investor with deep ties in the well-heeled Silicon Valley world. But just before he was to appear at Hoffman’s, Paul pulled out so that he could take his family on a spring-break excursion to Florida. Paul’s aides were aghast, realizing they’d missed an opportunity to cultivate the very type of donors likely to be receptive to his small-government philosophy.

A Paul spokesman, Sergio Gor, declined to comment other than to say that “scheduling conflicts come up all the time.” ..

The staff serving beneath [ chief strategist, Doug]Stafford and [campaign manager] Englander, meanwhile, is undermanned and overworked. While other presidential candidates have hired multiple aides to oversee their day-to-day scheduling, for example, Paul has only a few. The job is not for the faint of heart: In recent weeks, two overwhelmed schedulers, Cheyenne Foster, who worked on the presidential campaign, and Jessica Newman, who worked in the Senate office, have departed...

Those tasked with crafting Paul’s schedule say the process is like playing a game of three-dimensional chess. Rather than letting his campaign team determine his travel schedule, as is customary for busy presidential candidates, Paul often demands sign-off on minute details, going so far as to request detailed lists of possible flight schedules and routes. Paul — who has complained that running for president is “not really a lot of fun” — can be prone to asking for time off the campaign trail, and can be prickly about the most mundane of commitments. Shortly before attending an event in Monterey, California, last month, he griped about having to do a photo-line with supporters even though it had been on his schedule for weeks...

“Rand has a strong team and his support has deep, deep roots,” said Jesse Benton, who managed Paul’s 2010 Senate bid and is now overseeing one of his super PACs. “He’ll be just fine.”

But with little cash, and with other candidates like Trump sucking oxygen out of the race, Paul may be running short on time.

“He hasn’t had a great start, and I don’t know whether it’s too late,” said Ed Rollins, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns. “Others have stepped into that void, and I don’t see him in the top three or four anymore.”

Read the full article here.

This is extremely serious stuff. It appears the campaign is dysfunctional and apparently it is difficult to work for Rand. There is no chance that he will be able to bring into his campaign any major league talent, from here on out. And the tone of this article suggests that others in the campaign are unhappy and will jump ship at the first opportunity.

This article will also do a lot to close the door on any major league donors stepping up, given that they already have failed to do so for the most part.

 -RW 

(ht Nick Badalamenti)

WOW, Paging the Koch Bothers: Two Texas Billionaire Brothers Gave Ted Cruz $15 Million!

Ted Cruz is officially on the Farris wheel.

Farris and Dan Wilks, two billionaire brothers from Texas, have donated a whopping $15 million to Sen. Ted Cruz’s super PAC, setting a new record for the largest contribution so far in the 2016 race. The Wilks brothers made their billions in the West Texas fracking boom and sold their company, Frac Tech, for $3.5 billion in 2011. “Our country was founded on the idea that our rights come from the Creator, not the government. I’m afraid we’re losing that,” Farris Wilks told CNN. “Unless we elect a principled conservative leader ready to stand up for our values, we’ll look back on what once was the land of opportunity and pass on a less prosperous nation to our children and grandchildren. That’s why we need Ted Cruz.”

It looks like Rand blew this one, also, even though he was aiming directly at this warmongering sector of the Evangelical movement. The Wilks brothers are connected to David Lane, who arranged Rand's Israel trip. From The Prospect:

Last June [2013], presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Ted Cruz traveled to Iowa for an event convened by David Lane, a political operative who uses pastors to mobilize conservative Christian voters.

Lane is a Christian-nation extremist who believes the Bible should be a primary textbook in America’s public schools, and that any politician who disagrees should be voted out. Lane’s events are usually closed to the media, but he has given special access to the Christian Broadcasting Network’s sympathetic David Brody. Brody’s coverage of the Iowa event included short video clips of comments by brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who were identified only as members of Lane’s Pastors and Pews group.

CBN’s Brody reported: “The Wilks brothers worry that America’s declining morals will especially hurt the younger generation, so they’re using the riches that the Lord has blessed them with to back specific goals.” One of those goals may be David Lane’s insistence that politicians make the Bible a primary textbook in public schools.

 -RW 

Koch Brothers Throw Rand Paul Under the Bus

This is interesting.

Kevin Gentry is a conservative political activist and fundraiser who serves as vice president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and is an overall top aide to Charles Koch and David Koch (Gentry serves as vice president of special projects at Koch Industries.).

During this weekend's debate in  Virginia on whether to go to a primary, or convention, to pick the Republican candidate for president out of Virginia, Gentry, Eastern Regional Vice Chairman of the Virginia Republican Party and long-time advocate of Conventions, took to the floor advocating for a primary.

This, of course,  does not help Rand. As already noted, this goes against the convention advocacy of the Rand Paul team and is going to make things much more difficult for Rand in Virginia .

Rand just got introduced to the Koch brothers' bus.

Charles Koch

-RW

Billionaire Money Junkies

By Chris Rossini

Billionaire money is a common addiction for politicians seeking the Crown. It's been widely reported that Marco Rubio has a steady drip of Norman Braman money pumping into his veins.

Apparently looking for an even higher high, Rubio is a Koch-head as well:

Rubio spoke before the Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-funded group aimed at reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Americans for Prosperity, the brothers' flagship organization with an aggressive ground game and paid media operations in key states.

This is all textbook junkie behavior in crony-fascist America, but what caught my attention is Marco's interpretation of the deal.

Rubio says:

"People buy into my agenda, I don't buy into theirs. My stands are not influenced by my contributors, I hope my stands influence my contributors."

Here's a pro-tip for all observers...Billionaires do not shower politicians with money to be influenced by them.

---

Chris Rossini is author of Set Money Free: What Every American Needs To Know About The Federal Reserve. Follow @chrisrossini on Twitter.

Jeb Bush Gets to Audition Before the Koch Brothers

Bush will give the keynote address on August 21 at the "Defending the American Dream" summit organized by Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group founded and partly funded by the Kochs.

Russ Choma writes:

At this event, Bush will have his shot to impress the Kochs and their inner circle. He won't be singing for his supper; he'll just be auditioning for millions of dollars—perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars—in support.

Ted Cruz and Rick Perry will also be speaking at the event.

 -RW

Daily Fluctuations in the Net Worth of the Koch Brothers (in Billions)

WaPo reports:

Charles and David Koch saw their combined net worth sink by an estimated $2.2 billion between Monday and Tuesday, according to Bloomberg Business. They'll be OK, though; they're still worth over $100 billion between the two of them. Put into regular human terms, that's like the average American losing $1,200 -- if you can put it into regular human terms....

There's huge volatility in how much each Koch is worth. Below, their combined earnings or losses on the Billionaires Index each day

.There have been several days in the last six months that they've lost $2 billion, or close to that. And several times that they've made $1 billion or more.

Former(?) Koch Operative Behind the Major New Attack Against Rand Paul?

Wow, not only does Rand have to be concerned about an attack from billionaire neocon Sheldon Adelson, but a new attack is coming via a political operative who was a major Koch brothers man.

I have already pointed out that it appears Rand was set up to be the fall guy in the killing of the investigation of Congressional fraud related to Obamacare and that a political action group is already out with an attack ad in Iowa against Rand's killing of the investigation. This is serious, well thought out activities, designed to inflict major damage on Rand's presidential aspirations.

It turns out that the political action group behind the attack ad is American Encore.

Here's what Source Watch has to say about American Encore (my Bold):

American Encore is a secretive nonprofit group (formerly known as the Center to Protect Patient Rights) organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code that funneled more than $182 million in undisclosed donations to right-wing advocacy groups from 2009 to 2012, including Americans for Prosperity and the American Future Fund. The Washington Post described it as a "major cash turnstile for groups on the right during the past two election cycles," because it received large amounts of money from Freedom Partners and TC4 Trust as part of the $400 million Koch political network.

The president of American Encore is Sean Noble. Here's what ProPublica had to say about Noble in 2014:

The Dark Money Man: How Sean Noble Moved the Kochs’ Cash into Politics and Made Millions

For a brief, giddy moment, Sean Noble—a little-known former aide to an Arizona congressman—became one of the most important people in American politics.

Plucked from obscurity by libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, Noble was tasked with distributing a torrent of political money raised by the Koch network, a complex web of nonprofits nicknamed the Kochtopus, into conservative causes in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Noble handed out almost $137 million in 2012 alone -- all of it so-called dark money from unnamed donors -- from his perch atop the Center to Protect Patient Rights, a group run out of an Arizona post office box.

Much of it was channeled to obvious destinations: Groups supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, for example.

But with Noble as ringmaster, Koch money also poured into efforts that didn’t surface until long after Election Day: To a political committee backing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker against a recall attempt; to a group blaming President Obama for high gas prices; even to a legal challenge to Arizona’s redistricting plan.

“I must tell you that Sean Noble from your group has been immensely helpful in our efforts,” a California multimillionaire wrote to Charles Koch in October 2012, asking Koch to give several million to support an anti-union initiative in the state. “Thanks for any consideration.”...

Much of Noble’s work in 2012 remained invisible to the public until the Center and dozens of other Koch-backed nonprofits released their tax returns late last year...

In an email, Rob Tappan, spokesman for Koch Industries, did not respond to specific questions from ProPublica about Noble or the Center, but acknowledged Noble “was a consultant for Koch in the past and attended Koch seminars.” Tappan likened Noble to Jim Messina, who was Obama’s campaign manager, and Paul Begala, a chief strategist for Bill Clinton in his first presidential run.

It is unclear if Noble still does work for the Kochs. According to Pro Pulblica, a  California investigation, coupled with poor election results, weakened Noble’s influence on the Koch network and shrank the Center’s role within it.

If he is, he is doing so with a much lower profile, But whoever is behind the attack on Rand, it is a very serious player, guys like Noble do not come cheap, and it is going to be a very serious problem for Rand.

-RW

Gordon and Raimondo Slam Ed Crane Take on Murray Rothbard Split With the Cato Institute

The controversy over the Murray Rothbard split with the Cato Institute and Koch brothers has bubbled to the surface once again as a result of an interview given by Ed Crane.

David Gordon writes at LewRockwell.com:

Murray Rothbard was one of the founders of the Cato Institute; but, within a few years, he had come to a bitter parting of the ways with Cato’s president, Ed Crane, and with the Institute’s financial patron, Charles Koch.

How does this split come about? A recent interview gives Crane’s side of the story. (Crane’s comments on Rothbard begin at around 18 minutes into the interview.) Unfortunately, his account is without merit. As he tells the tale, Murray Rothbard was at first a “hero” of his. Rothbard was great company for his friends, but not a good person to have as an enemy; and he did not like Crane.

Why not? The problem, says Crane, was Inquiry magazine, edited by Bill Evers. The magazine aimed to win the political left to libertarianism. Crane thought this a poor strategy, as the left was not interested in moving in a libertarian direction. Evers nevertheless persisted; he wanted to impress his Marxist academic friends at Stanford. In any case, Inquiry was costing Cato a great deal of money. When Crane decided to close Inquiry, Rothbard turned against him and endeavored unsuccessfully to have him fired.

Crane’s remarks misrepresent the facts. A sharp antagonism had developed between Evers and Crane, and Rothbard supported Evers; but Rothbard’s split from Cato was not caused by the closure of Inquiry. Probably the dominant cause was Rothbard vocal criticisms of Ed Clark’s 1980 campaign, managed by Crane, for the presidency. As a result of his criticisms of Crane and Koch, Rothbard was forced off the Cato Board of Directors. I have written about these tumultuous events in more detail here.

The falsity of Crane’s account is readily demonstrable. Rothbard was ousted from the Cato Board early in 1981, but Inquiry was not closed until 1984.

Justin Raimondo responded on Twitter:

1) .@TheCraneReport lies about @CatoInstitute break w/Murray Rothbard: 20 mins. into this http://t.co/t09EzH6bds Truth is complete opposite.

— Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo) May 4, 2015

2) Rothbard broke with Cato over 1980 Clark campaign, which described libertarianism as "low tax liberalism" https://t.co/y7ZKsunSQe

— Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo) May 4, 2015

25 mins in http://t.co/t09EzH6bds @TheCraneReport sez Rothbard purged because he was a leftist/Leninist. The truth: https://t.co/ZXKz0y1yhY

— Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo) May 4, 2015

.@TCBurrus Ed Crane absurdly claims Rothbard purged from Cato because he was a "Leninist" leftist. Here's the truth: https://t.co/ZXKz0y1yhY

— Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo) May 4, 2015

It should also be noted that Crane purged quite a number of important libertarians and top scholars from Cato, including Roger Lea MacBride, board member and shareholder, David Theroux, vice president, Leonard P. Liggio, vice president,Williamson M. Evers, vice president and editor of Inquiry and Ronald Hamowy, editor of Inquiry. Rothabrd was not an isolated case.

MacBride was the first presidential elector in U.S. history to cast a vote for a woman when, in the presidential election of 1972, he voted for the Libertarian Party candidates John Hospers for president and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan for vice president.

Theroux, after his ouster from Cato. went on to found the The Independent Institute a very successful.  libertarian think tank. Liggio, in addition to becoming a law professor became the executive director of the John Templeton Foundation Freedom Project at the Atlas Network. Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and Hamowy became an important scholar. Gordon notes that his work on Hayek became well known.

It is difficult to think of any of those that Crane has kept around him that have gained the stature in academic and libertarian circles of those he ousted.

But what was it specifically that caused Crane to oust Murray Rothbard, arguably the greatest and most important libertarian of the 20th century? In 1981, just after his ouster, Rothbard provided details on what really went down:

Though my own rift with Crane began in the spring of 1979, no effort was made to remove me from the Cato board until this spring. To me it is clear that the real cause was not the Lib. Forum article [“The Clark Campaign: Never Again”] but the success which I and others had at the November board meeting in beginning to call Crane to account. I had been a one-man needler of Crane’s management at Cato board meetings for a year or more; until last November, I could be ignored as having only nuisance value, since I was just one lone voice tolerated on the board. But last November, suddenly, I had two allies, almost a majority of the Cato board. Over Crane’s initial opposition, I managed to carry the board resolution barring all senior Cato officers from partisan political activity, which helped insure Cato’s continued nonprofit tax-exempt status. Also at the board meeting we managed to set up a Salary Review Committee, to review the salaries of all the top executives — a commonplace for most boards but unheard of at Cato, where Crane prefers to run everything out of his hip pocket. It was because of this success that I had to go, and go quickly.

While all the...failings of Crane certainly played a large cumulative role, my own break with Crane came sharply in the spring of 1979. Typically, it came over matters that involved not only the Cato Institute but also the Libertarian Party and the movement as a whole.

The Sarajevo of the Cato Institute was a seemingly simple act: the hiring by Crane of Dr. David Henderson as his policy analyst and economist. The hiring of Henderson came as a thunderclap at Cato. Why was he hired? The firestorm of opposition to Henderson that broke out among all the Cato executives was based not so much on personal hostility as on the fact that the Cato Institute was supposed to be deeply committed to Austrian economics. Yet Henderson was not only not an Austrian but strongly hostile. So why was he hired? Especially since all those at Cato with economic backgrounds were bitterly opposed to the appointment.

Henderson is long gone, as his appointment turned out to be yet another Crane mistake, this time admitted as such by all concerned. Yet we never did find out precisely why Henderson was hired, apart for being a way from Crane to impose his will against almost unanimous advice.

-RW

Prostitutes In Suits

By Chris Rossini

It's pretty clear that latinos are big target for Republicans in the next election. The Koch brothers are doing their catering, and others like Jeb Bush wants to take latino superstar singer Pitbull to a baseball game.

As a matter of fact, Pitbull has more than one Republican street walker on his tail:

Sen. Marco Rubio, another Republican presidential contender, has said he's on a first-name basis with him [Pitbull] and likes his music. And Florida Gov. Rick Scott recently declared his birthday, Jan. 15, "Pitbull Day," and has given him the keys to Miami.

Are the prostitutes in suits enamored with Pitbull's dance moves? His cool shades? Of course not:

Pitbull commands a veritable army of Latino fans, many of them also Cuban-American...

And that voting bloc could be pivotal in swing-state Florida, both in tough gubernatorial races like Scott's last year, and competitive presidential contests like that expected in 2016. A Pitbull endorsement could mean more for a candidate than the backing of the billionaire Koch brothers.

Pitbull...Here are some words of wisdom from Ron Paul:

“When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.”

Send 'em back to their street corners.

---

Chris Rossini is author of Set Money Free: What Every American Needs To Know About The Federal Reserve. Follow @chrisrossini on Twitter.

Who Knew? Koch Brothers Have a Military Relations Manager

#Koch #Military Relations Mgr John Buckley attending Ft. Leonard Wood Transition Summit 5/5-5/6. http://t.co/7InS7GmsSi #HiringOurHeroes
— Koch Careers (@Koch_Careers) April 29, 2015

Did David Koch Speak Out of Turn and Accidentally Rile Up Jeb Bush?

Yesterday, NYT reported that the Koch brothers planned to support Scott Walker for the presidency, possibly with personal donations. NYT's evidence was a comment made Monday by David Koch in New York City at a political fund-raising event:

“When the primaries are over and Scott Walker gets the nomination,” Mr. Koch told the crowd, the billionaire brothers would support him, according to a spokeswoman. 

The co-multi-billionaire is walking back the comment.

In response to the report, DK said in a statement to Politico’s Ken Vogel: “While I think Gov. Walker is terrific … I am not endorsing or supporting any candidate for President at this point.”

Politico is also reporting that Walker, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, along with Jeb Bush will be invited to the Kochs’ summer conference. Rick Perry or Bobby Jindal, may also get invitations, said the magazine.

The headline to the Politico DK walk-back story is telling: "Koch brothers will offer audition to Jeb Bush."

The story goes on to say:

In another surprise, a top Koch aide revealed to POLITICO that Jeb Bush will be given a chance to audition for the brothers’ support, despite initial skepticism about him at the top of the Kochs’ growing political behemoth...Bush is getting a second look because so many Koch supporters think he looks like a winner.

Looks like the Jeb camp was not particularly happy with the Walker support comment, and when all is said and done the brothers never want to irritate people who have the potential to gain power from the Republican side. They are, afterall, Republicans first.

 -RW

Kochs Signal Support for Scott Walker

So much for the Koch brothers being libertarians, they are backing a full-fledged warhawk. This is big, including  from a Rand Paul perspective.

NYT reports:

Charles G. and David H. Koch, the influential and big-spending conservative donors, have a favorite in the race for the Republican nomination: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

On Monday, at a fund-raising event in Manhattan for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Mr. Walker was the Republican Party’s best hope for recapturing the White House.

“We will support whoever the candidate is,” said Mr. Koch, according to two people who attended the event. “But it should be Scott Walker.”

Rand's latest attempt to pander to the Koch brothers appears to have failed. Given what appears to be slim money raising by Rand, the Koch brothers moving to Walker's corner is a body blow.

 -RW

Rand Paul: I Love the Billionaire Koch Brothers Probably Even More Than Billionaire Sheldon Adelson

Rand Paul has penned a tribute to the Koch brothers. Specifically, pointing to their funding of such efforts as the Cato Institute and Mercatus Center:

For decades they have funded institutes that promote ideas, not politics, such as Cato and the Mercatus Center.

Yes, that Cato where the roaming monetary policy expert is George "Maynard" Selgin.

And it should not be forgotten that Mercatus has brought in to roam its halls, Scott "Let's print money to fake boost GDP" Sumner.

-RW