Newspaper column: Fight to replace Reid in Senate becoming a proxy war

Be careful with whom you pick a fight. They might fight back with some heavy artillery.

For years Harry Reid has been obsessively ranting and mewling about the wealthy Koch brothers, Charles and David, for deigning to spend their own money to express their free speech rights. He has pejoratively mentioned the brothers from the well of the Senate more than 130 times.

He even has a page on his official Senate website devoted to lambasting the brothers Koch. According to the 17 talking points on the page, the Kochs want to pollute the air, foul the water, dismantle Social Security, Medicare, ObamaCare, minimum wage laws and public education.

Though the Koch brothers this election season are largely staying out of presidential politics, they are pouring money into Nevada in an effort to help a Republican capture Reid’s Senate seat, now that he is retiring. They have already spent $6 million backing Republican Rep. Joe Heck and attacking former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Reid’s hand-picked Democrat successor, according to ThinkProgess, a liberal website.

Heck and Cortez Masto (AP photo)

Freedom Partners Action Fund, a super PAC that is part of the Koch brothers’ network, currently is spending more than $600,000 on a television ad accusing Cortez Masto of outsourcing legal work to a D.C. law firm that later contributed to her election campaign, calling her a special interest politician.

According to the latest polls, Heck and Cortez Masto are tied, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in Nevada by more than 70,000 registered voters.

A story in the Las Vegas newspaper recently reported that the Kochs’ Americans For Prosperity is working on a so-called ground game to challenge Reid’s vaunted army of union volunteers who bus casino workers to the polls with pre-selected sample ballots.

The Kochs are putting their money where their mouths are.

Reid seems to think that money alone will persuade people, but there also has to be believable content in the message. Reid has pounded the Kochs so often he sounds like a broken record. His criticism seems downright hypocritical when the Senate minority leader can call a press conference at the drop of a hat and get coverage from a vast majority of the broadcast and print media — without spending a dime.

It looks like a proxy war is now breaking out, with the Koch brothers’ independent support of Heck’s senatorial campaign becoming the target of a nearly million-dollar television ad campaign by a group called the League of Conservation Voters.

The ad makes a non sequitur attempt to somehow link the fact the Koch brothers’ got filthy rich in the oil business — while most of us just got filthy in the grease orchard, but that’s a story for another day — to an alleged antipathy on Heck’s part for renewable energy.

The ad claims Heck’s alleged favoritism toward oil risks Nevada wind and solar energy jobs, even though less than 1 percent of electricity in this country is produced with oil.

As for jobs, it is the League of Conservation Voters that is attacking jobs. According to its own website, it pushes for a tougher Endangered Species Act, which kills jobs, opposes drilling anywhere, which kills jobs, and wants to shut down any activity that contributes to carbon production, which kills jobs.

Heck sent out a press release countering the claims in the ad.

“While Dr. Heck has been a strong supporter of solar jobs in Nevada, including legislation to streamline renewable energy development across the state, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a DC-based partisan special interest that wants to put Nevadans out of work by stopping responsible mining, ranching, agriculture and recreation,” Heck spokesperson Brian Baluta said. “And, as Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto showed herself to be no friend of solar when she introduced a bill to exempt the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) from the open meeting law, allowing the PUC to raise rates behind closed doors. This bogus attack has nothing to do with clean energy and everything to do with installing Chuck Schumer as the next Senate Majority Leader.”

In fact, Heck has backed tax credits for wind and solar, which, frankly, drive up the cost of power and kills jobs. So, he’s no purist.

On the League’s scorecard Heck’s voting record agreed with its stances only 8 percent of the time, compared to Reid’s 81 percent. There’s a contrast Heck should be proud of.

It’s going to get ugly, folks.

Americans for Prosperity ad:

A version of this column appeared this week in many of the Battle Born Media newspapers — The Ely Times, the Mesquite Local News, the Mineral County Independent-News, the Eureka Sentinel and the Lincoln County Record — and the Elko Daily Free Press.

 

New TV ad tries to smear Senate candidate with oil

What a non sequitur.

According to the Las Vegas newspaper, a group called the League of Conservation Voters plans to spend $860,000 on a TV ad attacking Rep. Joe Heck because his campaign to replace Harry Reid in the Senate is being backed by organizations associated with the oil barons Charles and David Koch.

The ad claims Heck’s alleged favoritism toward oil risks good Nevada clean energy jobs. Less than 1 percent of electricity in the country is produced with oil, so what’s the point?

Heck and Cortez Masto (AP photo)

Jobs? It is the League of Conservation Voters that is attacking jobs. According to its website, it pushes the Endangered Species Act, which kills jobs, opposed drilling anywhere, which kills jobs, and wants to shut down any activity that contributes to carbon production, which kills jobs.

Heck sent out a press release countering the claims in the ad.

“While Dr. Heck has been a strong supporter of solar jobs in Nevada, including legislation to streamline renewable energy development across the state, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a DC-based partisan special interest that wants to put Nevadans out of work by stopping responsible mining, ranching, agriculture and recreation,” Heck spokesperson Brian Baluta said. “And, as Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto showed herself to be no friend of solar when she introduced a bill to exempt the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) from the open meeting law, allowing the PUC to raise rates behind closed doors. This bogus attack has nothing to do with clean energy and everything to do with installing Chuck Schumer as the next Senate Majority Leader.”

In fact, Heck has backed tax credits for wind and solar, which, frankly, drive up the cost of power and kills jobs, but no one is a purist in this fight.

On the League’s scorecard Heck’s voting record agreed with its stances only 8 percent of the time, compared to Reid’s 81 percent. There’s a contrast Heck should be proud of.

It’s going to get ugly, folks.

 

 

 

Koch brothers repay Reid by spending millions to capture his Senate seat for GOP

Be careful against whom you declare war. They might fight back and win.

For years Harry Reid has been obsessively ranting and mewling about the wealthy Koch brothers, Charles and David, for deigning to spend their own money to express their free speech rights. He even has a webpage on his official Senate website devoted to lambasting the brothers Koch. According to the 17 points on the page, the Kochs want to pollute the air, foul the water, dismantle Social Security, Medicare, ObamaCare, minimum wage laws and public education.

Though the Koch brothers this election season are largely staying out of presidential politics, they are pouring money into Nevada in an effort to help a Republican capture Reid’s Senate seat, now that he is retiring. They have reportedly spent $6 million so far backing Republican Rep. Joe Heck and attacking former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Reid’s hand-picked successor, according to ThinkProgess, a liberal website.

According to the Las Vegas newspaper today, the Kochs and other groups are currently spending heavily in the race, mostly against Cortez Masto. The story reports Freedom Partners Action Fund, a super PAC that is part of the Koch brothers’ network, has reported spending $622,153 on media ads opposing Cortez Masto, such as the one above.

Heck and Cortez Masto (RGJ photos)

According to the latest polls, Heck and Cortez Masto are tied, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in Nevada by more than 70,000 registered voters.

An earlier story in the Las Vegas paper reported that the Kochs’ Americans For Prosperity is working on a so-called ground game to challenge Reid’s vaunted army of union volunteers who bus casino workers to the polls with pre-selected sample ballots.

In a recent news account, The New York Times quoted Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, as saying, “It would certainly be poetic justice to see Harry Reid, who for so long has waged an unhinged personal vendetta against people we care a lot about, to see his seat go to someone who supports limited government, free speech.”

The Kochs are putting their money where their mouths are.

Reid seems to think that money alone will persuade people, but there also has been believable content in the message. I’m not sure anyone believes anything Reid has to say any more. He sounds like a broken record.

Anonymous sources good for Reid’s goose but not right-wing gander

Harry Reid —who unapologetically lied about Mitt Romney paying income taxes for 10 years, citing an anonymous source — is gloating over a pseudonymous source hoaxing a blogger with tale about how Harry really got his New Year’s Eve injuries.

“What this guy proved to me is that journalism doesn’t exist,” Reid told the Review-Journal. “I wish I’d meet this guy and pat him on the back.”

Larry Reid mugshot from R-J

This came on the heels of a weekend story in the Sun insert that told of a Larry Pfeifer claiming to have made up a story about how Reid’s younger brother Larry might have beaten him and getting Power Line blogger John Hinderaker to report it.

While saying he could not vouch for the story, Hinderaker recounted Pfeifer’s tale of a man named Larry showing up at an AA meeting on New Year’s Eve intoxicated and talking about how he might be in trouble with the Secret Service. Pfeifer said he had a bloody left hand. Reid’s injuries were to his right eye and right jaw.

Pfeifer said people at the meeting later recognized Larry Reid when his mugshot appeared in the paper when he was arrested for DUI and assault on a police officer in Boulder City.

Reid claimed the reported hoax “appeared in newspapers all over the country,” though I’ve yet to find a single newspaper account of it until the Sun’s report. Plenty of newspapers repeated the story Reid told about Romney’s taxes, based on an anonymous source.

Perhaps there were reasons to question the veracity of the tale. Do they let drunks into AA meetings? Reid’s bodyguard is provided by the Capitol Police, who have yet to file an incident report, not the Secret Service.

Amusingly, today Harry Reid sent out a solicitation for donations to his Searchlight PAC claiming a leaked Koch brothers memo states: “The plan comes with a $125 million 2015 budget for Americans for Prosperity … That’s the most the group has ever spent in a non-election year” (Reid’s emphasis) The email says:

“For years, I’ve called the Koch brothers out for trying to buy Congress. And according to leaked documents, it looks like they are upping their game in 2015.

“Which means if we’re going to beat them, we have to up our game, too.

“Searchlight Leadership Fund is all about supporting strong Democratic candidates that oppose the Koch agenda, and those candidates — now more than ever — need our help.”

An unnamed source? Yes, Politico reported this a week ago based on anonymous sourcing, but might they have been hoaxed? Harry Reid certainly did not deign to check it out.

There is also more than one version of how Reid was injured coming from Reid’s office, but hardly anyone is questioning the contradictions.

Lisa Benson cartoon

 

Let’s hear the argument for rewriting the First Amendment

Apparently there are a few Republicans who have decided it is time to give the Democrats enough rope to hang themselves.

Twenty Republicans — including Nevada’s junior senator, Dean Heller — joined the Democrats to vote 79-18 to begin debate on a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress and the states to limit how much of one’s own money a person or organization may spend on elections and issues.

That means as much as a week of the two weeks the Senate will be in session before the elections will be spent debating an amendment that has no chance of passing. 

Less time to talk about the budget. Less time to discuss immigration, terrorism and even the things the Democrats want to push, such as the minimum wage, equal pay for women and reforming student aid.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, of course, used the occasion to bash the Koch brothers and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“We’ll vote on a constitutional amendment that would bring sanity back to elections and restore Americans’ confidence in our democracy,” Reid tweeted before the vote.

So, let the Democrats start gabbing about how important it is to protect the stupid voters from being exposed to someone’s ideas because they spend money to get their message out. Of course, the press is exempted because they spend no money and have no agenda. Right?

That is the crux of the argument: Voters are stupid. Well, that may be a given, since they elected these buffoons to the Senate.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC, which this amendment would overturn, pointed out the wrongness of a law restricting speech by restricting spending:

As a “restriction on the amount of money a person or group can spend on political communication during a campaign,” that statute “necessarily reduces the quantity of expression by restricting the number of issues discussed, the depth of their exploration, and the size of the audience reached.” Buckley v. Valeo , 424 U. S. 1, 19 (1976) (per curiam) . Were the Court to uphold these restrictions, the Government could repress speech by silencing certain voices at any of the various points in the speech process. See McConnell , supra , at 251 (opinion of Scalia , J.) (Government could repress speech by “attacking all levels of the production and dissemination of ideas,” for “effective public communication requires the speaker to make use of the services of others”). If §441b applied to individuals, no one would believe that it is merely a time, place, or manner restriction on speech. Its purpose and effect are to silence entities whose voices the Government deems to be suspect.

Reid would like to silence the Koch brothers, while he would still be allowed to rant on the floor of the Senate.

It would be tempting to call for a gag on Reid, but the more he talks, the more he reveals about himself, his motives and his objective to stamp out liberties.

 

 

 

Harry Reid wants to strike free speech from the First Amendment

Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.

Harry Reid — in full-throated anti-Koch brother rant — this week told the world he knows better than the Founders just how much free speech the citizens of this country should be allowed. He announced he is backing an amendment to the Constitution that would tear the heart out of the First Amendment.

Reid promised the Senate would vote soon on an amendment put forth by  Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

The amendment would allow Congress and the states to set limits on contributions to candidates and limits on how much of one’s own money could be spent in support of or opposition to a candidate.

It also expressly states: “Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress the power to abridge the freedom of the press.”

Problem solved. The Koch brothers buy a press — or a television network or a string of radio stations or a website.

These days anyone with a computer owns a “press.” The size of the audience can vary wildly, of course.

That fundamental press freedom flaw aside, Reid’s whole argument that there must be equality imposed on speech by limiting the corrupting power of money is bogus. The rich may try to buy votes with their advertising buys, but any such transaction takes a willing seller.

In his prepared text Reid declares:

“The Supreme Court has equated money with speech, so the more money you have the more speech you get, and the more influence in our democracy. That is wrong. Every American should have the same ability to influence our political system. One American, one vote. That’s what the Constitution guarantees. The Constitution does not give corporations a vote. And the Constitution does not give dollar bills a vote. From what I’ve heard recently, my Republican colleagues seem to have a different view. Republicans seem to think that billionaires, corporations and special interests should be allowed to drown out the voices of Americans. That is wrong and it has to end.”

Might we remind the senator from Nevada that his vote in the Senate carries the same weight as those of the senators from California and New York and other states where far more “Americans” reside. So the Constitution does not guarantee one American, one vote.

Nor does the Constitution dictate equal outcomes for all people.

Have the voices of Americans been drowned out as Reid states?

In addition to being a senseless and futile gesture, such an amendment would require a huge bureaucracy to enforce, but, of course, this bureaucracy would be even handed like the IRS and efficient like the VA and responsive like the BLM.

Reid called campaign spending by concerned citizens “one of the greatest threats our system of government has ever faced.” Concluding in table thumping terms:

“It is unacceptable, that the recent Supreme Court decisions have taken power away from the American voter, instead giving it to a select few. Soon, Chairman Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Senator Udall and Bennet’s constitutional amendment. The Senate will vote on this legislation after it is reported out of the Committee. I urge my colleagues to support this constitutional amendment – to rally behind our democracy. I understand what we Senate Democrats are proposing is no small thing – amending our Constitution is not something we take lightly. But the flood of special interest money into our American democracy is one of the greatest threats our system of government has ever faced. Let’s keep our elections from becoming speculative ventures for the wealthy and put a stop to the hostile takeover of our democratic system by a couple of billionaire oil barons. It is time that we revive our constituents’ faith in the electoral system, and let them know that their voices are being heard.”

No, the greatest threat is a massive Leviathan of a federal government that sweeps aside freedoms for self-serving reasons and spends our grandchildren into eternal, crushing debt.

The Koch brothers can spend every dime of their billions arguing for conservative policies, but it would be for naught if there is none willing to agree.

Corporations can spend millions selling New Coke and Edsels, but there have to be willing buyers.

Freedom of speech needs no ground leveling. The power to persuade is not the exclusive domain of the loudest, otherwise every debate victor would be the one with the biggest bullhorn.

If this democratic Republic is not a farce, the voters will, eventually, figure out the best route to a more prosperous future.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a game of ‘King of the Hill,’ so to speak

I’ll see your pair of shadowy billionaire brothers and raise you with my pair of shadowy billionaire brothers:

A 501(c)(4) organization associated with the Koch brothers, who have been attacked on the floor of the Senate by Harry Reid as unAmerican, on Monday released an online ad called the  “Steyer Infection,” which compares Reid’s pot shots at the Koch brothers with Democrats cozying up to the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and his brother Jim.

“This is about two very wealthy brothers who intend to buy their own Congress,” Reid says in the ad. “You see when you make billions of dollars a year, you can be I guess as immoral and dishonest as your money will allow you to be.”​

Works both ways, doesn’t it?

May the richest brothers win — the Senate majority, that is.

Reid pot calls Koch kettle black

In one of his rants on the floor of the Senate in which he accused the Koch brothers of trying to buy the country, Harry Reid also accused them of violating federal law by bribing foreign officials.

“These are the same brothers whose company, according to a Bloomberg investigation, paid bribes and kickbacks to win contracts in Africa, India and the Middle East,” Reid said, calling the brothers “unAmerican.”

The Kochs’ attorney quickly replied that the allegations in the Bloomberg article have been debunked and there have been no charges filed, according to The Hill.

Now, the Washington Examiner reveals that Harry has taken more than half a million dollars over the past four years from companies under investigation for possible violations of the  Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Using campaign records and a blog about probes under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the newspaper put together this graphic:

The first figure is the total amount for that company’s associates, the second figure is the amount given by individuals at the company, and the third figure is the amount given by the company PACs.

Have you no sense of decency, Harry?

What the world needs now is a Joseph Welch — someone to call out Harry Reid and ask him if he has no sense of decency for calling cancer patient liars and denying that Obama lied when he said if you like your policy you can keep it more than 20 times.

The truth and reality are strangers to Harry Reid.

Obama didn’t lie:

But cancer patients did:

Sen. Joseph McCarthy was castigated and relegated to irrelevance in history for saying, “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

Harry Reid

If Harry fails to resign as Senate majority leader after saying this, he has no sense of decency:

“The leukemia patient whose insurance policy was canceled [and] could die without her medication, Mr. President, that’s an ad being paid for by two billionaire brothers. It’s absolutely false. Or the woman whose insurance policy went up $700 a month — ads paid for around America by the multibillionaire Koch brothers, and the ad is false.

“We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the lives it’s ruining in Republicans’ stump speeches and in ads paid for by oil magnates, the Koch brothers. But in those tales, turned out to be just that: tales, stories made up from whole cloth, lies distorted by the Republicans to grab headlines or make political advertisements.”

Julie Boonstra is demanding Reid apologize:

We are waiting.

Harry-the-lip just keeps making up things

Harry Reid lives in a fact-free zone.

A couple of weeks ago he was quoted by Politico as accusing the Koch brothers of trying to “buy the country.”

Harry Reid quoted by Politico

“Because of a United States Supreme Court decisions (sic) called Citizens United, there’s been some really untoward stuff going on in the political world. We have two brothers who are actually trying to buy the country,” Reid was quoted as saying.

Politico points out that in 2010, when Harry was re-elected, the Koch brothers actually gave nearly $200,000 to Democratic candidates — including a $30,000 donation to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

But if you check with OpenSecrets.org, you’ll find the Koch bothers, via their Koch Industries, are nowhere near the top in buying power when it comes to political contributions. In fact, they are 59th in the period between 1989 and 2014.

Out of the top 20 organizations in buying power, only two tilted toward giving to Republicans. Many of the top contributors are unions.

During that crucial 2010 election cycle, the Koch Industries PAC, according to FEC.gov records, spent $2.6 million.

Meanwhile, the Friends for Harry Reid committee spent $22.5 million.

Now, who is trying to “buy the country,” Harry?

OpenSecrets.org top 10

Actually, Reid isn’t buying the country. He is extorting money out of lobbyists so he can maintain his power.

Peter Schweizer’s book, “Extortion: How politicians extract your money, buy votes, and line their own pockets,” has a section on Reid.

Schweizer opens that section with a quote from “The Godfather” by Don Corleone, “Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”

The book then describes a scene at a restaurant hours after Reid was sworn in on Jan. 4, 2005, for his fourth term and became Senate majority leader. “Reid was seated in the quiet backroom of the restaurant. The lobbyists, who represented the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, took turns saying hello to the new leader. ‘It was like a scene out of “The Godfather,”’ one lobbyist told Roll Call. ‘He was in the room and people were lined up to greet him and pay homage.’”