Thursday, February 2, 2012

Obama's Enemies List

David and Charles Koch have been the targets of a campaign of vituperation and assault, choreographed from the very top.



How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president's re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?

What would you do if the White House engaged in derogatory speculative innuendo about the integrity of your tax returns? Suppose also that the president's surrogates and allies in the media regularly attacked you, sullied your reputation and questioned your integrity. On top of all of that, what if a leading member of the president's party in Congress demanded your appearance before a congressional committee this week so that you could be interrogated about the Keystone XL oil pipeline project in which you have repeatedly—and accurately—stated that you have no involvement?

Consider that all this is happening because you have been selected as an attractive political punching bag by the president's re-election team. This is precisely what has happened to Charles and David Koch, even though they are private citizens, and neither is a candidate for the president's or anyone else's office.


You can read the rest here at the WSJ online. It was written by the brilliant and principled attorney, Ted Olson, who I admire very much. Although I hear increasingly bizarre accusations against the Koch Brothers (including the most recent by Henry Waxman, which was called stupid and intellectually desperate by Charles Krauthammer), I knew very little about them. Anyway, I found the article to be worth reading.

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