Koch Brothers Fire Back At Obama For Campaign Attack

Charles and David Koch fired back at Obama after his campaign attacked them in an email earlier this week.

Philip Ellender, president of government and public affairs for Koch industries, posted an open letter to Obama campaign manager Jim Messina online Friday. The letter was a response to an attempt by the Obama campaign to tie Republican rival Mitt Romney to the Koch brothers.

Ellender called the Obama email "iresponsible and misleading" and said it was "surprising and disappointing that the President would allow" such behavior:

This is not the first time that the President and his Administration have engaged in this sort of disturbing behavior. As far back as August, 2010, Austan Goolsbee, then the President’s chief economic advisor, made public comments concerning Koch’s tax status and falsely stated that the company did not pay income tax, which triggered a federal investigation into Mr. Goolsbee’s conduct that potentially implicated federal law against improper disclosure of taxpayer information. Last June, your colleagues sent fundraising letters disparaging us as “plotting oil men” bent on “misleading people” with “disinformation” in order to “smear” the President’s record. Those accusations were baseless and were made at the very same time the president was publicly calling for a more “civil conversation” in the country.

It is understandable that the President and his campaign may be “tired of hearing” that many Americans would rather not see the president re-elected. However, the inference is that you would prefer that citizens who disagree with the President and his policies refrain from voicing their own viewpoint. Clearly, that’s not the way a free society should operate.

This isn't the first time the Koch brothers have taken action against Obama. In early February, the two made a pledge with about 250-300 other individuals to spend approximately $100 million to defeat Obama this November.

Earlier on HuffPost:

 

 

Comments

[americonst4]

07:27 PM on 03/01/2012

• WE do not trust Obama.
• GOLDMAN SACHS is Obama's biggest single campaign donor as are many other Wall st banks.Fannie ,Freddie, Goldman and the like pulled off the biggest pump and dump in history with the housing market.They made billions as families were pushed to the streets.And the lib’s and dem’s complain about the KOCH bro's.Pathetic Dem’s.
• Goldman and the like produce nothing but misery for most tax payers, with inflation and market rigging, and we spent billions bailing them out. .The Koch bro’s produce oil products we use everyday with no taxpayer bailout..
LONG LIVE THE TEA

[luv2livzen]

06:05 AM on 03/02/2012

The banks & Wall St. were deregulated under Bush. They caused the economic crisis. So.... why won't the TeaParty / GOP House agree to get the regulations back in place? The ones that prevent banks from being 'to big to fail'? Because: ALEC -- the powerful Koch group backing their election campaigns, etc., Doesn't want regulation. They don't care about families 'pushed to the streets', as you say. They also think middle class & poor people don't need Minimum Wage, or Unions. They think those raise wages too much! Well -- don't believe me. Check out good information for yourself:

---AlecExposed.org ---lists Corporations, Politicians by State, & the Agendas of the Tea/GOP.

[Notorious Nuno]

04:53 PM on 03/01/2012

LOL, I love reading how RepubliCONS love to speak up as if they represent the entire country, more specifically, the 99%. The problem for them is that the country's finally waking up, and realizing that everything these parasites stand for is legal slavery for poverty wages, the right to crash our economy, the right to strangle government, and the right to legally force people into mass genocide by trying to do away with the social safety net...the only things the 1% is good at!!! These people should never have seen the light of day...enough with tolerating the stupid people in the 1%, and the parasites who support these soulless fascists who've been destroying our country since Nixon's & Reagan's reign!!! I hope God sends them all the way of the dinossaurs ASAP...they don't belong in any society on this planet!!!

[greencrv]

12:29 AM on 03/01/2012

All signs lead to Obama losing in a landslide in November. He'll lose seats for the democrats in both congress and the senate. He won't be able to appoint any justices to the supreme court, and all the foolishness over the past 4 years will be all washed away.

We can bring the troops home and use the defense budget savings to pay down the debt that Obama has foisted on Americans. It's time to get the nation moving forward, and it starts with an Obama defeat next November!

[nschomer]

12:04 PM on 03/01/2012

I guess "all signs" doesn't include the latest polls showing Obama beating any of the losers in the republican primary by double digits.

[BlackBottom]

07:02 PM on 03/01/2012

There, there now...feel better?

[codycap]

04:08 PM on 02/28/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch

David Koch was the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in the 1980 presidential election, sharing the party ticket with presidential candidate Ed Clark. The Clark–Koch ticket promising to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve Board, welfare, minimum-wage laws, corporate taxes, all price supports and subsidies for agriculture and business, and U.S. Federal agencies including the SEC, EPA, ICC, FTC, OSHA, FBI, CIA, and DOE.[2][12] The ticket proposed legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide.[2]
With the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], the billionaire Koch brothers, and other rightist allies, the GOP has already succeeded in passing legislation that inhibits and/or prohibits voting by students, seniors, minorities, and the poor.

The Koch bro's daddy bankrolled the John Birch Society.

The Koch brothers changed the name and bankrolled the Tea Party.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11035/1122957-455.stm

Fortunately, the John Birch Society has been there providing the tools and ammunition to bring these newbies (Tea Party) into the movement."--- John F. McManus, president of the John Birch Society

[vtpix]

08:52 PM on 02/28/2012

So what They disagree with the dems/libs and possibly the GOP. Because they dsiagree, do you believe that the obama campaign should verbally attack them or make baseless accusations? As stated by their lawyer, don't the people in the US have freedom of speech?

Is obama's skin so thin that he can't take it when someone disagrees with him? He basicly banned Fox news because he didn't like being critiqued.

[luv2livzen]

06:13 AM on 03/02/2012

There is No difference between the TeaParty / GOP & the Koch Bros. They are running the party. They choose the agenda / philosophies. That's why the party is 'unrecognizable'.

How will you & yours Benefit? & the 99%? Please check it out.

-----AlecExposed.org---facts on the Politicians & Corporations & Agendas/ Beliefs

[nschomer]

12:07 PM on 03/01/2012

"The ticket proposed legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide."
Sounds like a typical libertarian platform, and completely in line with the founding principals of our country. You seem to be using this as a "gotcha", which of these positions do you disagree with? Why?

[RABSR]

02:40 PM on 02/28/2012

Koch brothers?

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Obama’s continued attack on the Constitution is unacceptable.

He must be defeated.

[maninal2]

05:51 PM on 02/28/2012

Specifically what has the Obama administration done that has been adjudicated as unconstitutional?

[vtpix]

08:57 PM on 02/28/2012

as stated by their lawyers, the continued attack against individuals expressing their own opinions is anti freedom of speech. As to other things, As to other things, he ignored congress in his attacks on Libya, and his taff sold weapons to mexican gangs, and he made presidential appointments when congress was in session which is ignoring the laws. As to obamacare, that too is going to court to see if it's constittional to force people to pay the government if they have no health insurance.

[Oliver Clark]

01:20 PM on 05/04/2012

haha, as if romney is going to be better huh? I'd rather have Obama than Romney/

[JasonWS]

12:58 PM on 02/28/2012

Translation: "No fair telling the truth! We object!"

[pinouye]

01:56 PM on 02/28/2012

What truth? Apparently the Obama Administration, via Austan Goolsbee, made false claims in 2010. Maybe they're doing the exact same thing this time around.

[patricksmom]

02:09 PM on 02/28/2012

I just love it when billionaires think they are above the law. Good that Obama isexposing their shady attempts to buy government and politicians.

[jamaicalover]

02:11 PM on 02/28/2012

Thank you for providing documented proof of your allegation.

[frankiebarbella]

09:38 AM on 02/28/2012

I just love it when elected officials decide to target private citizens!!!

One and Done!!! NO MORE BARRY O!

[NoboyukiMasaki]

12:30 PM on 02/28/2012

as if.

[hank101]

01:44 PM on 02/28/2012

I dont think you can call anyone with a polotic and government affairs in their corporation a private
citizen. Closer to an anacherist trying to over throw a government.

[frankiebarbella]

02:55 PM on 02/28/2012

please rethink and restate!

[Eric Sandoval]

03:39 PM on 02/28/2012

The Koch Brothers are ideological fascists, NOT anarchists. If they were actuakly anarchists, I'd be less bothered by them.

[dvx99]

09:36 AM on 02/28/2012

About time the Right gets support to offset the lies, fear-mongering, and misinformation put forth by billionaire George Soros/moveon.org, BIG labor unions, and the mainstream media groups.
Living in Wisconsin, we've witnessed the latter's tax-wasting measures go to extremes. Fortunately, their days are over in Wisconsin. We're no longer bankrupt like our border states, especially Illinois, the home state of our corrupt and inept President.

[Mara Para]

01:00 PM on 02/28/2012

I live in Wisconsin. I do not know what you mean when you write you've "witnessed" the "extreme" "tax-wasting measures" of "the mainstream media groups." How have these "media groups" wasted taxes? Name the media groups.

This must be some sort of gobbledygook-mongering, because I do not have a clue what you mean.

(post script) I don't get any of my information from George Soros or moveon.org. Though I suspect your buzz words come from RedState and Rupert Murdoch.

[Eric Sandoval]

03:45 PM on 02/28/2012

My Mum's a teacher in Wisconsin, and I've lived there myself, in both Madison and Racine. One thing I discovered quite quickly is that the state has a LOT of Nazi sympathizers, wanna-bes, and ideological fascists. Even if this troll wasn't one of the three, he's just one of the more useless know nothing's that screwed that state up. And as for Walker, he was owned by the Koch bros from the giddy. It was hilarious how he chased out jobs because his masters encouraged him to do so, then the jobs went to Illinois and they even out up a funny billboard thanking Wisconsin for the jobs.

[patricksmom]

02:13 PM on 02/28/2012

Yes you have a big deficit thanks to Walker, who may face recall as soon as May. OBAMA/BIDEN 2012.

[dvx99]

02:45 PM on 02/28/2012

Wow, so Walker caused our deficit? What planet are you from?
#2-The Governor of the Year isn't going anywhere except for reelection in a couple of years if he doesn't become VP on the Romney ticket this fall in the meanwhile.

[rushnbobo]

03:14 AM on 02/28/2012

The Koch brothers are white, in their 70s, involved in oil and gas, paper cups, and even stain resistant carpet, their company earns about $100 billion per year, and they donate to charity and political causes. In short, they are the perfect Liberal Boogeymen throwing levers behind the scenes (perhaps in smoking jackets) working for some type of conspiratorial plan to wrest control of the nation away from the majority.

[LeaderofMen]

09:47 AM on 02/28/2012

See my post above. The Koch brothers' machine worked on you.

Apparently, you're not familiar with the train wreck that tens of millions of dollars of campaign money does in a political campaign. The Koch brothers rely on people to not know this.

[dvx99]

10:01 AM on 02/28/2012

Much like Soros, unions, and the mainstream media. You've obviously drank some Kool-Aid as well.

[vtpix]

09:02 PM on 02/28/2012

Like the 300 million obama has?

[glock19]

04:29 PM on 02/28/2012

The have revenue of about $100B a year...not earnings...now back to the basement.

[OLJW00]

02:48 AM on 02/28/2012

The Koch Brothers are great Americans.. We'd be better off if there were a lot more like them...

:)

[dhodge]

07:52 AM on 02/28/2012

MIT educated??? I'd have to agree with that.

[OLJW00]

12:31 PM on 02/28/2012

http://ki.mit.edu/

This is good stuff and worthy of praise.

[Aztwn77]

02:09 AM on 02/28/2012

The Koch brothers are my kind of people!

Good for them!

[Mara Para]

03:21 AM on 02/28/2012

Ed Clark and David Koch were the Libertarian ticket in the 1980 presidential election. They ran against Ronald Reagan/George Bush.

Clark/Koch would legalize prostitution and recreational drugs. They would abolish Social Security. They would eliminate the SEC, EPA, FTC, OSHA, FBI, CIA, and DOE. They also wanted to legalize suicide so I am guessing that means they are pro-euthanasia.

They received only 921,128 votes or 1.06% of the vote.

[frankiebarbella]

09:40 AM on 02/28/2012

I bet they could do better today. But smoking the lettered agencies above would be a good start. I wonder if there is another candidate that has that in their plan? Oh yes there one..

GO RON PAUL!

[LeaderofMen]

09:49 AM on 02/28/2012

They can't get votes, so they're purchasing their way to power. They've been highly successful, but their end result would be utter chaos. We all know that. It is very clear and evident how that would affect a nation of 300M+ people, and the rest of the world, too.

[Ken Lum]

12:59 AM on 02/28/2012

In my opinion and millions of other Americans, the Koch brothers are spreading miss-information and lies about the president. The Koch brothers printed ballots that were sent to Wisconsin, with incorrect due dates for the ballots, to throw off the recall efforts of Scott Walker. The typical republican/Koch brother’s response, "we must have over looked those miss prints of the dates". Play dumb when it is convenient.

Obama in 2012!

[vtpix]

09:06 PM on 02/28/2012

They are part of the population that realizes electing a community leader was a mistake and are trying to correct the situation before the country goes bankrupt.

[bllnsinchnge]

12:44 AM on 02/28/2012

We don't need an executive branch.

[Tolkie]

12:50 AM on 02/28/2012

Who is "We?"

[patricksmom]

02:23 PM on 02/28/2012

Then you and your 10 friends need to find an abandoned island.

[robertste998]

11:48 PM on 02/27/2012

What a laugh. The Koch brothers should rename themselves the outsource brothers. They are the two deep pockets behind the buying of the extreme right of the GOP. They want to kill unions so that at 75, they can expand their wealth from $50 billion inherited dollars to $100 billion. How much fillet mignon can these greedy old geazers gobble? They want to take the food off of American tables so that they can buy up even more puppet politicans on the extreme radical right.

[rushnbobo]

03:21 AM on 02/28/2012

By focusing on the Koch Brothers, what Democratic writers and activists do is create a massive blind spot regarding why their party never seems to do very well overall in elections. The percentage of Americans in unions has been dropping quickly for decades and the public has shown an increasing dislike for them. Wisconsin might have been the first state to put the hammer to Big Union but many states are making plans to follow this path

[LeaderofMen]

09:51 AM on 02/28/2012

Your posts are amusing, but tiresome. The Koch brothers have a very long and well-documented track record of disrupting the political process. Did I mention that it is WELL-DOCUMENTED.

By pretending that the Koch brothers have no influence in this election, you are in league with them.

[dvx99]

10:08 AM on 02/28/2012

Fanned!! A non-Kool-Aid drinker!

[deckercat]

10:55 PM on 02/27/2012

do these suckers spell koch right?

[hank101]

01:49 PM on 02/28/2012

They want it pronounced 'Coke" but Koch is right, they dont want to be associated with rotten
Koch.