Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has spent a lot of his time in an ultimately toothless attack on Charles and David Koch, two billionaire brothers who have spent millions on Libertarian and Republican political causes. Now, despite massive electoral losses proving that those attacks didn’t help Democrats at the polls, Reid and other Democrats are promising to keep pursuing their assault.
In the year leading up to last Tuesday’s midterm election that set off a wave of Republican victories across the nation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacked the Libertarian political donors on a nearly daily basis.
The attacks got so ridiculous, even left-wingers like Mother Jones magazine editor Daniel Schulman and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called Reid’s tirades nothing less than McCarthyism at its worst, and sites like Politico called the Senator’s antics into question.
Despite the criticism, even from supporters, not to mention the major Election Day losses that caused Reid to lose his status as majority leader, the Nevadan promises to stay in attack mode.
Reid is not alone. Three days after the Democrats’ disastrous election results, Politico reported that several deep-pocketed Democrat activists also intend to continue their attacks.
“Liberal groups ranging from the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm and House super PAC to the outfits run by billionaire Tom Steyer and conservative-turned-liberal enforcer David Brock all signaled that they intended to pursue anti-Koch spending,” the news site reported.
In fact, Politico was given access to a whole new attack piece soon to be launched by the left-wing PAC American Bridge run by David Brock—a long time Clinton apologist and the man behind attack group Media Matters for America.
The attack on the Kochs, though, might be a bit misleading to Reid’s left-wing fans. With the undue focus on only these two donors, liberals might think that the Kochs are the only donors on the Republican side.
So-called “dark money” is very hard to trace, but by some estimates, the Koch brothers spent less than seven labor unions did in the 2014 elections, and others note that spending in 2014 was practically even between left and right.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.