The New Koch

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

21 February 13

his appears to be my morning for harshing liberal mellows, but I am not as giddy with delight as a lot of people are at all the fine talk about how the Koch Brothers are being forced by political circumstance to adjust the means by which they will sublet the public sphere.

"The massive amount of outside political spending unleashed by Citizens United did not, as feared, make it easier for rich people to buy an election. Instead, it showed that rich people are pretty dumb about politics. Take the billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch who are spending their 2013 figuring out why they the money they spent in 2012 was such a waste. They have already fired most of their 100 staffers at Americans for Prosperity, and they're now conducting an audit.Like American Crossroads and the Republican National Committee, the Koch brothers are trying to figure out why they couldn't beat President Obama -- and several Democratic Senate candidates in red states. The Kochs have delayed their twice-a-year meetings with big conservative donors until they've finished their audit, Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel reports. The results of the audit will be presented at an April seminar, Vogel writes, adding, "Early indications suggest that they'll continue playing in politics but will tweak their approach to reflect 2012 lessons."

I don't think you can look at the success that the Kochs and people like them - and the vast array of institutional money-laundries that they run - are enjoying out in the states and judge their political activities a failure quite yet. (They've done everything but slap a logo on the Wisconsin state capitol building and, as nearly as I can tell, their investment in ALEC seems still to be paying off.) True, they didn't elect Willard Romney president, but to attribute that catastrophe to uncoordinated messaging and the maverick political instincts of an odd lot of billionnaires is to let a lot of people off a lot of hooks. And it wasn't the Kochs who elevated Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin to positions from which they could screw up the possibility of a Republican Senate. It was thousands of base voters who listen to the radio and to some of the other independent actors making up what passes for a Republican elite these days.

I resist the notion that the 2012 election proves that the Citizens United decision is less of a monstrosity than it is. First of all, it enshrined in attempted constitutional perpetuity some ideas - corporate personhood, money as speech - that are rancid simply on their merits and can only get worse with time. Second, I am more of the opinion that the new era opened by the decision caught everyone by surprise, including the people best equipped to take advantage of it. They will adjust, not their positions on the various issues, but simply their strategies for buying what they want out of the people in the government. Does anyone seriously think the Kochs are going to take direction from Karl Rove or, more hilariously, a third-rate tire salesman like Reince Priebus, let along some unnamed Republican operatives who are running their mouths? The Kochs haven't had to take direction from anyone since they were zygotes. The great thing about having fk-you money is the sheer number of people to whom you can say fk you.

Charlie has been a working journalist since 1976. He is the author of four books, most recently "Idiot America." He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.