Very Good Read On The Koch Brothers ...

If you're like me, in the last few months you've seen them described as evil puppet masters behind the scenes of the tea party, big oil, and climate change "denial," an instrumental in what's happened in Wisconsin. They are also allegedly responsible for every human ill from halitosis to restless leg syndrome. The hard left definitely has a Koch brother fetish

I don't know everything about them, and I suspect they are not perfect human beings without failings. But I am confident they are being unfairly targeted and smeared for the most part.

The first column below is long, over 10 pages, but well worth the time.

The Paranoid Style in Liberal Politics: "The left’s obsession with the Koch brothers. David Koch’s secretary told him the news. This was in February, during the rowdy standoff between Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and demonstrators backing 14 Democratic legislators who’d fled to Illinois rather than vote on a bill weakening public employee unions. Koch’s secretary said that an editor for a left-wing website, the Buffalo Beast, had telephoned the governor posing as David Koch and recorded the conversation. And Walker had fallen for it! He’d had a 20-minute conversation with this bozo, not once questioning the caller’s identity. But then how could Walker have known? Sure, David Koch was a billionaire whose company had donated to his campaign. But Koch (pronounced “Coke”) had never talked to Walker in his life."

Money and politics: The Koch brothers and the progressive master narrative - The Economist: "I don't think many people understand how little these institutions depend on the Kochs' continued generosity. Of the brothers, Charles is the ideas man, and his idea has always been to build a set of complementary institutions which, once mature, can thrive without his (or his brother's) financial help."