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October 05, 2011 09:11 PM UTC

How Slick Is "Teflon Cory's" Teflon? We May Know Soon

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols



As the Colorado Independent’s Troy Hooper reports:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wasted little time linking at least one Colorado congressman to Monday’s damning Bloomberg Markets Magazine report on Koch Industries…

“Representative Cory Gardner’s career in Congress is propped up by the most radical interests in the country who profit off business with the Iranian regime known for their sponsorship of terrorism and calls of ‘death to America,'” Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement sent to Colorado media outlets. “These are the same controversial Koch brothers who bankroll right-wing candidates like Representative Cory Gardner and are pushing an extreme ideological agenda that hurts the middle class and seniors while protecting their own tax break for Big Oil. Will Representative Cory Gardner continue to welcome the support from Koch Industries in light of the new investigation showing the companies profited by doing businesses with state sponsors of terrorism or is he finally ready to start rejecting it?”

Rachel Boxer, spokeswoman for Gardner, told The Colorado Independent on Tuesday morning that her office would review the DCCC statement and formulate a response. She did not return messages left for her later in the day…

From the Bloomberg report:

What many people don’t know is how the Kochs’ anti-regulation political ideology has influenced the way they conduct business.

A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries — in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East — has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.

Internal company documents show that the company made those sales through foreign subsidiaries, thwarting a U.S. trade ban…

We’re pretty sure that if you could tie a Democratic campaign donor, particularly one responsible for such a large amount of money donated to candidates like the Koch brothers and Cory Gardner, to profits earned illegally doing business with Iran, there would be a massive outcry on the right of high treason. But when it’s the multibillionaire Koch brothers doing it, the Koch brothers who assemble the top Republican donors and public officials together in secret twice a year to warn them of a “battle for America’s survival” against Barack Obama…while apparently doing business with an enemy in violation of sanctions…

Well, folks? Can you explain why this isn’t on the front page of The Denver Post? With a list of everybody the Koch brothers have given money to in this state? If mainstream media seriously doesn’t think Gardner’s reaction to one of his largest campaign donors doing business with a state sponsor of terrorism is a story, a head-spinning double standard is at work.

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43 thoughts on “How Slick Is “Teflon Cory’s” Teflon? We May Know Soon”

    1. Did Gardner sell oil production equipment to the Iranians? No.

      If Koch broke the law they should pay the price, but it’s ridiculous to try to drag Gardner into it. Gardner is no supporter of terrorists. Neither is Koch, so I will assume this was a rogue subsidiary until it’s proven otherwise.

      1. The same Koch brothers whose family fortune is built on the victims of Stalin’s gulags?  There is a precedent for the Koch family to turn the the US’ enemies to enrich the family.

        The Koch brothers have no qualms in doing business with a nation that isn’t friendly to the US as government imposed restrictions to free market interactions are a thing to be abolished and a trade embargo is definitely such a thing.

          1. Koch Sr. built a series of cracking units in the Soviet Union for Stalin in the 1930’s when he couldn’t operate in the US due to legal disputes over technology he developed.  That is, Koch provided designs and project management while gulag prisoners built the damn things.  Apparently Koch was quite horrified at Stalin’s treachery against other Bolsheviks and viewed the Soviet Union as a threat to be countered.  But, his principles didn’t go far enough to actually reject the blood money that Stalin paid him in.

            Regarding the Koch brothers lack of qualms, as adherents to the Austrian School of economic thought, they would take the view that government regulations upon economic transactions are a thing to be avoided at all costs (asides from regulations to protect individual property rights and liberty) and a trade embargo would fall under this definition.  Only through market consensus can an entity be excluded from the market.

      2. but, but there were all sorts of middlemen, and shell companies involved, and it was buried so deep in the paperwork !  It wasn’t the one that SPECIFICALLY did it !  Cory Gardner, R-Tehran

      3. I assume that means the Republican Party now has changed their stance on Iran and considers them one of our friends since Koch had no problem using their very own foreign subsidiary, Koch-Glitsch, to sell Iran the products to build the largest methanol plant in the world.

        Let me know where you all changed language in the party platform to reflect that, will ya?

        Because currently US State Dept. policy states the following:

        Iran supports Iraqi militants and Taliban fighters as well as terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, according to the U.S. State Department.

      4. Yeah, I’m sure you have a deep record of expressing the same sentiment about non-billionaire, non-white criminal defendants caught red-handed breaking the law — a record of believing without evidence the ubiquitous “a flunkie did it without my knowledge” defense that every mafioso, gang leader, etc., presses, just like Koch, the terrorists’ industrial supplier, is doing. Because a guy with “GOP” in his name surely is a credulous soul for criminal defendants, right?

      6. dear naive ArapG.  It was no rogue event.  They found a way they were confident it was technically legal to sell through subsidiaries and went ahead with it. On purpose. According to their own plan.  

        No one is making a claim as silly as yours, not even the Koch brothers. Look it up.

        If they were Dem billionaires R pols would be howling for all contributed funds to be returned and for the brothers to be denounced and “refudiated” and you know that perfectly well.  You’d be doing it right here on this blog yourself.  

        Fun to imagine what would happen if R pols had to return all their Koch money.  But it will never happen because 99% of them are completely amoral hypocrites. Among the grass roots supporters of today’s GOP, it’s divided between the amoral and the clueless. Take your pick.

        1. “We are proud to be a major American employer and manufacturing company with about 50,000 U.S. employees,” she wrote. “Given the regulatory complexity of our business, we will, like any business, have issues that arise. When we fall short of our goals, we take steps to correct and address the issues in order to ensure compliance.”

          Cohlmia says Koch fired the employees and sales agents involved in the illicit payments and strengthened internal controls.

          Regarding sales to Iran, she wrote, “During the relevant time frame covered in your article, U.S. law allowed foreign subsidiaries of U.S. multinational companies to engage in trade involving countries subject to U.S. trade sanctions, including Iran, under certain conditions.”

          Koch has since stopped all of its units from trading with Iran, she says.

        2. “During the relevant time frame covered in your article, U.S. law allowed foreign subsidiaries of U.S. multinational companies to engage in trade involving countries subject to U.S. trade sanctions, including Iran, under certain conditions.”

      7. Knowing how you hate to lift a finger to do any research before you issue your little statements of “fact”,  I’ll toss you a free of charge clue

        It will probably surprise nobody that Koch Industries sees nothing wrong with the practices of Koch-Glitsch. A spokesperson of Koch Industries is quoted in the article with saying that “Koch-Glitsch had protocols in place that were consistent with applicable U.S. laws allowing such sales at the foreign subsidiary level.”

        http://politicalgates.blogspot…

        See? No accidents. They simply couldn’t care less who buys as long as it makes them richer.  

      8.  

        Gardner is no supporter of terrorists. Neither is Koch,

        He takes money from the Koch brothers to do their bidding. Perhaps if you said, he is no overt, direct, supporter of terrorism, you might be right.

        They support terrorism all over the world with their free market attack on the peoples of the world. You can bet your ass these two are on the driving team of the “free market experiment” bus.

        There is more than one kind of terrorism. Starvation, religious persecution, racism, sexism, bullying, domestic abuse… all are based on the same principle. And you, my dear fool, support such greedy hatefulness.

        It must be nice to be one of the chosen few. Favored by God to be one of the winners. So go home tonight and lay down your head and try to not think about the thousands of children that will die of starvation while you sleep. Think instead of what a nice new yacht David Koch will be able to get because Congress has slashed his taxes in order to cut foreign aid and domestic programs.

        HAND

  2. why a lot of stories don’t end up on the front page of the Denver ‘Past’.  Lack of influential political reporters?  Poor editors?

    Voyager where are you when we need you?

  3. Has anyone actually read the Bloomberg article start to finish? It’s stunning. Damning. Reading about these guys makes me want to shower. I really haven’t known much about them up to this point–now I know more than I wish I did.

    Genuinely greedy, money hungry scumbags that have no regard for US law, international law or any reservations about making secret deals with countries that the Party they donate their $$$$ to claims to be a terrorist country and enemy of the US. I guess Iran is only our enemy when Koch and company aren’t making secret deals worth billions of dollars with them.  

    1. Sometime back, in reference to a discussion about John Salazar, I asked rhetorically about Kock Industries’ influence in Colorado politics. I guess we’re finding out.

    2. It could be a bad “Matt Helm” movie.

      These are two really despicable human beings…and apparently they have surrounded themselves with a host of like-minded flunkies.

      I think their activities should be considered treasonous. But, that’s just me.

      1. Name it. I’m on board. Stealing millions of dollars of oil from Native Americans in OK ought to be enough on its own to string them up, never mind blowing up two kids, knowing full well you are reopening a corroded pipe after 3 years because you can make more money running gas through it than you can bother to take the time to fix it.

        And then selling petroleum products to Iran through your foreign subsidiary so they can build the largest methanol plant in the world–yeah, that ought to qualify for at least some public outcry from the party that receives billions in donations every year.

        I’ll just sit here and hold my breath waiting for a single Republican on this site or anywhere else in this country to call them out for being treasonous, thieving scumbags.  

  4. I assume you know the worst kept secret at the DP, which is that Dean Singleton personally attended the Koch retreat at Bachelor Gulch. The one where Kochie boy compared Obama to Saddam Hussein. Singleton, publisher of the Post, is a member of Team Koch.

    Anyway, you were wondering why this isn’t in the Post. Easy answer…

    1. But thanks. I could kick myself for being so naive that I hadn’t made the connection myself.

      The Koch boys and their ilk are killing democracy in this country. Singleton is but one of their cowardly, despicable media henchmen.

  6. Where is the proof of the 300k? I don’t see any links to campaign finance reports or anywhere that proves the outrageous claim of 300k.

    Let me also remind readers here that Democrats have taken their fair share of Koch money over the years. Nevermind that though, it wouldn’t fit with your narrative.

    1. and I would very much like to. As you said, show your work, Pols.

      Oh, which reminds me, I’d love for you to show yours, as well, each and every Dem that has taken money from Koch boys over the years. Because they need to return it and I’ll be more than happy to waste a few of my minutes daily contacting each and every one of the Dems currently in office that are taking donations from Koch and Co.

      Taking money from the Koch brothers is no different than taking it from the mafia. Same style, same tactics, same lack of moral ethics.  

      1. We cited the Independent’s story. We just sent an email asking for clarification of that figure to the author of the story, and we’ll update with his response when we receive it.

        2. Pols follows up immediately and Ed suddenly disappears. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is complying the figures for each of the Dems currently serving in the House and Senate that have been major Koch recipients.

          In the meantime, thanks to the adults (ie. Guvs) in the room.  

            1. he should have plenty of down time to look all that up. After all, he’s the one that insisted on a link to the $300K for Gardner so I’m sure he holds himself to the same standards, no?

              Oh, that’s right. The answer is no.  

          2. That particular paragraph was not actually that important to our narrative, so we removed it for now–if we get a satisfactory explanation for the figure from the author, we’ll put it back. Koch Industries is without a doubt a major contributor to Gardner’s campaign, as well as much larger independent expenditures, but if the latter is where the total figure came from there may be more precise ways of explaining that. We’ll leave our record accurate in the end–always our goal.

            1. Pols: are you and the other Stryker online rag the Independent just reprinting DCCC press releases? Glad you changed it (after it was already read by the majority of people that were going to read it).

              Didn’t the 300k charge seem ludicrious to you? You didn’t fact check it before publishing?

              1. The troll attempts to feed! Get a grip, asshat, it’s a political blog. They post press releases. I get far more DCCC shit than Pols ever posts. DCCC sends rapid response every day, didn’t you know that? Don’t you think the Kochs selling oil production hardware to the Iranians is a bad thing?

                Every Democrat who has ever taken Koch money should give it back right now. I’ll join your call if you ask Cory to give back the many thousands he got from the Kochs.

                Back to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ed. Isn’t it crazy that the Kochs are selling stuff to our enemies? I guess when they say Obama’s the enemy, they mean it. And the rest of America, too! If I was Cory Gardner, I’d be feeling really burned right now.

                And I’d be giving back every cent. Don’t you think Cory should do that Ed? Along with every Republican and every Democrat who ever took money from these traitors?

              2. Since Peak Politics is now the Republitroll Gold Standard ™, I should remind you that a mere $1,000 from Anthony Weiner to Ed Perlmutter was enough to send you right wingers to the moon.

                GIVE IT BACK: Perlmutter Took $1,000 From Weiner

                Gotta love those guys. So, big boy, should Ed give back the $1,000 to the embarrassment who broke no laws, or should Cory Gardner give back the thousands of dollars in possible Iranian oil profits? Do you remember when the Iranians were supplying Iraqi rebels with shaped charge munitions to blow up our men and women in uniform? That’s worse than taking a picture of your bulging shorts and sending it to the world, isn’t it?

                Also, I don’t know of anything that Weiner got from Perlmutter, unlike Gardner who pulled his name from the Pickens natural gas bill at the Koch’s behest this summer. It was a gross tin soldier act. Weiner gave out little checks to be friends, Koch gets hard deliverables for their money.

                Sorry that was two more things, sweetie-troll.

            1. You don’t actually know how call time works in the fundraising world, do you? They are in total heads-down mode taking information from staff. The staff is printing lists from a database. They’re reading from lists. Shit happens.

              That said, I seriously fucking doubt it will ever happen again. Not after that.

      2. than Rs have, it would be a great move for congressional Dems who have to call a splashy press conference announcing their return of the dirty money and inviting, not demanding as Rs would, that congressional Rs do the same.

        Even if few paid attention, the video would be great for future campaign ads with a sad scrolling list set to sad music of the Rs who failed to accept the invitation and with the particular R running against the particular Dem candidate highlighted. The same ad could just plug in the appropriate candidates in elections across the nation.  

  7. – Rep. Gardner benefited from $12,500 in donations from Koch Industries. [Moneyline, OpenSecrets, FEC]

    – Americans for Prosperity, founded by David Koch and run by Koch Industries, executives spent $302,364 on Representative Gardner in 2010. [DCCC Media Buy Analysis]

    2. No picture?

      I’ll believe it if there’s video showing Rep Gardner opening the envelope and depositing the check. (or slipping an unsigned check into one of the Kochs’ pockets)  

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