Poor little KBros

Glenzilla does his usual fine job of deconstructing the Koch Brothers latest whine about being "wrongly indicted" in the court of public opinion. However, I have to agree with John Cole that Glenn gets a little off-track with this graf:

I'm not someone who sees the Koch Brothers as some sort of unique threat. ...Every political movement needs demons lurking behind every problem -- the more hidden and omnipotent the better -- and the Koch Brothers now serve the same function for the Left as George Soros long served for the Right: the bogeymen who motivate the loyalists and on whom everything bad, including political losses, can be blamed.

Of course, the KBros aren't the only villians in this set piece and Glenn has a point in that the focus on them, deserved or not, invites the analogy. But as John replies:

A couple of things. First, this reads like the “both sides do it” nonsense that Glenn should realize has corrupted so much of our national debate. The fundamental difference between the two is the Koch brothers spend huge sums of cash to help enrich themselves, and then they throw a token few dollars for “libertarian” principles. Soros, on the other hand, spends millions of dollars on programs that help all Americans.

That is a fundamental difference.

I'd add Soros does it all over the world. His Open Society projects work to empower the poor and disenfranchised. Koch brothers strive mightily for the opposite goal. And as far as I know, Soros is not buying politicians outright as the KBros are.