Congress is back from its five-week August recess, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is wasting no time picking up where he left off: Attacking libertarian businessmen Charles and David Koch.
Reid’s constant Koch attacks, which are usually launched from the floor of the Senate, have earned sharp criticism.
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, currently a conservative talk radio host, argued in an op-ed published Tuesday by Roll Call that the Senate Majority Leader’s constant and increasingly vicious attacks on two wealthy private citizens are likely meant to stir up class envy among U.S. voters ahead of the November midterm elections.
“In a panic over tight races, Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to deploy the class warfare strategy of President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and blame the rich for America’s continued economic stagnation,” he said in an article co-written by radio producer David Wilezol. “Reid has developed a particular obsession with attacking David and Charles Koch, two private citizens and successful American entrepreneurs and employers.”
“Since January, Reid has attacked the Koch brothers by name more than 22 times on the floor of the Senate, derisively calling them, ‘power-drunk billionaires,’ among other things,” he added. “The malice behind the rhetoric is evident when we consider that 50 percent of all Americans have zero idea of who the Koch brothers are.”
Bennett, who served under former President Ronald Reagan and has emerged recently as a supporter of Common Core, continues, offering one example after the other of Reid’s anti-Koch fanaticism. The former education secretary also notes that although the Kochs have given to a great many philanthropic endeavors, including several conservative causes, Reid’s politically motivated attacks remain blind to the bipartisan good that the brothers do.
Unfortunately, as the November midterm elections inch ever closer, and as Democratic strategists continue to scramble to combat the likelihood of the U.S. Senate trading hands to the Republican Party, it’s likely that Reid’s Koch attacks will grow shriller and more desperate. That’s when things will start to get really, really ugly for Congress and the American voters.
