In their nearly $900 million quest to install one of their devotees to the White House, the Koch brothers have teamed up with casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to purchase the presidency.
The new coordination appears to stem at least partly from their shared interest in busting unions and ending estate taxes — two policies that would greatly benefit both of their own interests while hurting everyday working families.
Both the Kochs and Adelson have become ubiquitous with dark money in conservative politics, but only recently did the two major fundraising networks begin to work together. Adelson gave at least $15 million to Americans for Prosperity in 2012, and roughly 30 percent of Adelson’s $100 million in political spending in 2014 went to the brothers.
The Kochs are so committed to their new arrangement that they’re overlooking the most egregious policy difference.
One notable case involves an Adelson-financed lobbying crusade to kill Internet gambling — a cause that Adelson has portrayed largely in moral terms, but that also has very real bottom-line ramifications for his gambling empire, since the spread of Internet gambling would most likely eat into his revenues. The expensive Adelson lobbying blitz is the kind of targeted campaign that many conservatives castigate as “crony capitalism,” and in fact it’s been labeled just that by Ron Paul, the libertarian champion and father of Sen. Paul.
The Koch network has harshly criticized various types of government intervention and tax breaks that benefit specific companies or industries as examples of “crony capitalism.” But it has been silent on Adelson’s lobbying blitz to snuff out Internet gambling.
“Adelson’s financial support for the Koch network will trump their philosophy as it normally does,” predicts one conservative familiar with the Internet gambling battle.
As always, the Kochs become hypocrites the moment it means more money, whether it’s for Koch Industries or their political network.