Walker's Koch Addiction

It couldn't be more clear since they were one of the biggest contributors to the Republicans' election campaigns, that what's happening in Wisconsin was bought and paid for by the Kochs, but it's worth archiving the full extent of Gov. Walker's sellout of the public interest.

Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.

And the Kochs are certainly getting what they paid for. This sweet deal included in the budget was tailor made for the Koch's business interests. It allows Walker to sell "any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state" without any "approval or certification of the public service commission." Can hardly wait to see what bargain basement price they'll pay for taking over those state interests.

But let it not be said that the Kochs don't do their part. It's not just money. They also sent in their astroturfers to make a public show of support for Walker's folly. Right on cue, the Koch funded and controlled Americans for Prosperity showed up at the protests to "prove" Walker was speaking for the "silent majority."

President of the group, Tim Phillips, tells the media:

“We are going to bring fiscal sanity back to this great nation.”

AFP cites the nationwide membership base as proof it's a real grass roots organization.

The "activists wing of the organization today has chapters in 32 states, including Wisconsin, and an e-mail list of 1.6 million supporters, said Mary Ellen Burke, a spokeswoman. She would not say how much of last year’s $40 million budget came from the Koch family, but nationwide donations have come in from 70,000 members, she said, offering it as proof that it has wide support.

For the record, the 2010 U.S. Census reported the population of the US is currently 310,866,579 residents. Of course these people use Malkin math, so that's clearly a vast majority in their deluded little minds. But this is bigger than union busting in Wisconsin.

“We thought it was important to do,” Mr. Phillips said, adding that his group is already working with activists and state officials in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge them to take similar steps to curtail union benefits or give public employees the power to opt out of unions entirely.

I can't help but recall an argument I had with a friend about how 2010 was not the right time to let the GOP regain power simply to teach the Democrats a lesson about ignoring progressives. He confidently predicted they would lose it again by 2012 and asked, "How much damage can they do in 2 years?"

I'm not sure we're going to survive the answer to that question. At least, people like me, already teetering on the edge of third world level poverty very well may not. In their powerlust, the GOP has lost the last shreds of morality. And as bad it is now, this is only the beginning.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]