Why, Carly........Look who you're in bed with: the billionaire backers.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

By Tim Rutten

California, birthplace of the modern environmental movement, remains one of the greenest of blue states, even while it struggles to cope with levels of unemployment unseen since the Depression.

That makes the budding relationship between Republican senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina and billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch all the odder. The Kochs own and run America's second-largest privately held company, Koch Industries — an amalgam of oil, gas, pipeline, chemical, fertilizer and wood products companies, including Georgia-Pacific. Lump them together, and the Koch brothers have the country's third-largest fortune — $35 billion — after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

According to a New Yorker profile, the Koch brothers' father was one of the original members of the John Birch Society, and his sons embraced his conservative politics, ultimately drifting into the anarchist-inflected wing of the libertarian movement. They're currently major funders of the "tea party" and of conservative Republican candidates across the country.

Though one brother lives in Wichita, Kan., and the other in Manhattan, they seem to be taking a particular interest in California politics this year. They helped mount the campaign for Proposition 23, the ballot measure that essentially would gut AB 32, the state law mandating lower carbon emissions as a step toward addressing global warming. A Koch Industries PAC has also donated $5,000 to Fiorina, and the company was among the sponsors of a Washington fundraiser for her Thursday night.

The rest at the link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten-fiorina-koch-20100925,0,3849413.column

[gateley]

1. GREAT subject line, Peggy -- and a great article. Thanks! nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Thank you, my dear gateley!

Today's LA Times...they often have great op-ed pieces.

[UrbScotty]

3. Carly - and Meg too!

I wonder what the Koch brothers have to be doing for Meg.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I wonder too, my dear UrbScotty........

I'm sure it's money...

But beyond that? Dunno.

And she's trying to walk the fine line between the tea partiers and the rest of us.

[malaise]

4. DId I hear that she's trying to walk back her comments

about Fresno being awful. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear malaise!

I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that Meg was the one running down Fresno, comparing it to Detroit...

Good luck to whoever it was on walking back those comments, lol!

:rofl:

[malaise]

10. Yes you're right

It was Meg. :rofl:

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/09/22/2088372/whitman-fresno-looks-like-detroit.html

add link

[Frustratedlady]

7. All the more reason why the wealth should not be concentrated with so few.

I have nothing against those who gather their wealth through honest labor, but I somehow can't see that being the story for the Koch brothers.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Yep...Carly always struck me as someone who took a page from the Nancy Reagan Playbook

Here's what I'm talking about, for anyone who didn't catch the reference: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/4/13036/20280

[monmouth]

9. Both brothers have homes down here in Palm Beach and they're here

off and on during season. Friends in PB tell me the "Old Guard" repubs are furious with them for getting involved with the teabagger crazies.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. I should probably understand, but I don't...

Why are the "Old Guard" republicans upset about their involvement with the teabaggers?

Not respectable enough?

:shrug:

[monmouth]

14. "Poor image" doncha know. PBers are "Eisenhower" repubs, signs

costumes, etc and crazy talk are not their idea of republicanism. I think they're embarrassed by the teabaggers.

[Dappleganger]

11. Great post, Peggy. The Koch bros are also going after Grayson in FL

They've funded some nasty commercials going after a true democrat here in FL and it makes me sick.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. Thanks!

Oh boy....going after Grayson? Yikes. He is distinctly one of the really good guys. That really pisses me off.

Thanks for letting me know that little factoid. I'll increase my support for him. Those weasels must be driven off...

[L0oniX]

15. You can get VD that way too, Carly.