After raking a considerable amount of muck yesterday at Mother Jones with Part 1 of our exclusive on the secret Koch tapes which I obtained from an insider source, it’s time to do it again today in Part 2.
In yesterday’s report, we promised to reveal the identity of the Koch brothers’ opening night keynote speaker at their super-confidential, ultra-exclusive, invitation-only 2011 Summer Seminar. We teased that the mystery man was a high-ranking GOP public official who, until our special report, had managed to keep his appearance at the billionaire brothers’ soiree at the plush Ritz-Carlton Beaver Creek Resort in Bachelor Gulch, CO (near Vail), a complete secret from both his own constituents and his local media.
That GOP superstar, we reveal today, is none other than New Jersey’s flamboyant Republican Governor Chris Christie who, on the morning of Sunday, June 26, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, then jetted quietly out to Colorado, mingled with the billionaires, offered a rousing stem-winder of a keynote address over dessert, jetted back home, and then appeared live Monday morning, in-studio, on three different cable news shows (two on Fox and the other MSNBC’s Morning Joe) in Manhattan.
He never breathed a word of where he’d been the day before. Nobody other than those inside the big dinner pavilion at Bachelor Gulch — where, outside, “pink noise” was blasted into the mountains on huge loud speakers to deter eavesdroppers on the night Christie appeared — would ever even know he had left the state. Until now.
At one point during his nearly hour-long remarks (including a lively Q&A), Christie criticized President Obama as having “failed the fundamental test of leadership, which I believe is to tell the people who hired you the truth.” Ironically enough, however, Christie seems to have forgotten to have told the people who hired him the truth about where he spent the day and night on June 26th.
While GOP Presidential front-runner Gov. Rick Perry (TX) as well as Govs. Bob McDonnell (VA) and Rick Scott (FL) had been discovered to have attended this year, Christie’s presence had not previously been reported publicly anywhere. That changes today, thanks to the secret audio recorded inside the Koch’s 2011 Summer Seminar.
Part 2 in my exclusive series is now published at Mother Jones here.
Any reason in particular that Christie didn’t want his constituents to know he was palling around with the Kochs and delivering a wildly entertaining stem-winder to the hundreds of gathered corporate titans? Dunno. While his office confirmed to us that the trip was not on his public calendar, they declined to respond to multiple attempts seeking comment on the Colorado trip. Maybe, as the Kochs did yesterday, they’ll decide they want to respond after all, once the story gets out today.
As noteworthy, if not more so, billionaire brother David Koch is heard introducing the Governor and revealing, among other things, that he had met privately with Christie in Koch’s New York City office a few months prior, “just the two of us – for about two hours,” according to the audio tapes. Afterward, the oil-and-chemical magnate, said to be worth $22 billion (just like his brother, as they both inherited their father’s fortune), determined that Christie was “a true political hero” and “my kind of guy.”
David Koch’s “kind of guy.” Well, that’s the sort of thing that could leave a mark. Especially when the entire thing is recorded for posterity on audio tape. Perhaps that’s why Christie didn’t want anybody to know he was hobnobbing with the Kochs…or what he had to say at their secret shindig, including (but hardly limited to):
- Details on wielding extraordinary unitary executive powers to declare a “fiscal emergency” upon taking office in order to impound billions in planned spending (“The good news for all of you and for me is that the governorship in New Jersey is the most powerful constitutional governorship in America.”);
- Snookering and strong-arming Democrats in the state Legislature to cut pensions and benefits and collective bargaining rights from public workers (“You know, I cannot believe how stupid these people are”);
- How the same tactics and strong-arm governance he’s brought to New Jersey need to be applied to the country as a whole, and;
- How his next major plan for his Garden State constituents is to crush the power of public school teachers (“We need to take on the teachers’ union once and for all.”)
It’s all in today’s report.
• Part 2 of my exclusive special report at Mother Jones…
• Complete audio & transcripts of David Koch’s introductory remarks and Gov. Chris Christie’s keynote and Q&A…
Enjoy!
UPDATE 9/8/11: Looks like Part 2 of my MoJo exclusive has ignited several political firestorms — particularly in New Jersey. Oops. Full details now here…
Excellent investigative piece, Brad.
BRAVO!
Good job.
Too bad we have to “inflict transparency” on the wartocracy because it will not do it itself.
Somebody’s gotta do it …
Los Angeles Times reported today:
So why doesn’t Rick “don’t need no government” Perry simply go to his billionaire benefactors, the Koch brothers, and ask for assistance. After all, Koch Industries has been a major factor in the global climate change that is in play in record TX heat/drought?
Very simple, Perry, a dishonest, climate-science denier, knows that right-wing billionaires donate money only where it serves to increase their wealth and power. So long as their refineries aren’t hit, the Kochs could care less if TX burned to the ground.
The TX wildfires are a perfect metaphor for what is in store for the rest of the nation if the Koch funded and controlled ‘Tea Party’ prevails in 2012.
Hey Brad-just BRILLIANT. It is so sad Obummer has sold the people out (he just put a stop to rules the EPAhad painstakingly put in place to protect us poor humans from ozone levels that will KILL US). Not much choice left-just like Nader has been saying all along. It is the TRUTH. Sadder, those who have drunk the tea will not understand the depth of Christie’s and the Koch Brothers’ perfidy. My new mantra: RECALL THEM ALL! PRIMARY THEM ALL! It’s frankly time to take a look at our system-it’s rife with corruption and in the hands of people MORE THAN WILLING to sacrifice the planet, the animals, the land, the water, and all of nature for a few more invisible, intangible sawbucks. I can imagine how people come to see money as more valuable than health & survival, but I think we’ve entered the Endgame, and us who can see this better gird for a huge effort just to survive. FLOODING IN VERMONT?!?! Yikes a’mighty!!
The Koch brothers put GOP above country, which makes the Koch suckers bullshit brothers with Obama, because he too puts the GOP ahead of country.
Going off the grid for awhile but just have to say how disappointed I am to see the President bashing on most of the “progressive” blogs.
“Be careful of what you wish for”
The man has two daughters that I imagine he would like to see grow up and from what I have read he has up to thirty death threats a day.
Maybe he would be happy to give it all up and live a normal life. You can’t expect eight plus years of that f@#king mess to be cleaned up in two and a half years!
Good luck.
Great work, Brad.
Nice connecting the dots, Ernie.
It’s like Howard Zinn said–look how nervous these cats are. Look how vulnerable they seem to be even with all their wealth and power. The extreme measures they have to take in order to keep their machinations secret from the country they feel only they are suitable to control. So living up to the American Dream, ain’t they? So unable to proudly proclaim they’re true colors to anyone but the privleged chosen few. Some part of them senses that if we the people know/find out the truth about what the ultra-rich kids are planning for the rest of us and get motivated to ACT, their preferred outcomes are in a world of trouble.
Gotta keep pushing.
Dear Sophia @#4, The Obama administration has not thrown us under the bus regarding EPA regs. Here is a well thought out rebuttal to the angst expressed by yourself and many others regarding the decision to delay (not kill, delay) the implementation of new smog/air pollution regulations for the time being:
http://www.osborneink.com/2011/09/epa-smog-rules-freakout-is-ridiculou.html
The president has other options and his jobs program is tied to the very source of smog.
Please, it is worth a read…
I made this point in an earlier thread, but here goes again.
Are not the DeVose family the owners/operators of a technology support company that specializes in e-voting machine tech support?
And were they not implicated in the 2004 Ohio election for vote tabulator system hard drive replacements IN OHIO DURING the 2004 presidential general elections?
And are not there still law suits ongoing the reference the statistical impossibility of the vote counts occurring as they did? Specifically regarding the surge by vote for President Bush that defy any and every exit polling ever done in the United States?
Dan-in-PA and my Lasagna ~ That is EXACTLY what I want to know, too! Who, on this scurrilous and super-secret roster of dung-beetle gazillion-iare attendees, is their VOTE STEALING SPECIALIST?
(…goin’ a googling now.)
Congratulations, Brad-fly! According to CNN, you’ve got the Koch;s “seething”! HOW GREAT IS THAT?! This has given me a boosty pluck of stride I haven’t felt in years; such a new feeling I did a little happy boxing dance all the way up Hollywood Blvd last night, left-jab right-hooking my way to the RITE-AID.
And no, I don’t box. I looked totally retarded. (Note: I only started using the term “retarded” as a pejorative term about the time Sarah Palin told me I couldn’t.)
I’m so proud of you, Brad. Thank you.
Dan-In-Pa @8
I read your link. I’m not well-versed enough in the technical aspects of that person’s post to have an educated opinion on all he/she’s opining upon but on the face of it, I’m not buying.
Obama is doing some brilliant three dimensional chess move to bring about the fantastic progressive results we voted him in for with regard to air pollution with some sophisticated contra-coup with the car companies combined with other brilliant behind the scenes hip and cool policy initiatives? Really?
But what about all the evidence to suggest he’s not been doing anything at all like that on so many other environmental fronts(and of course on so many other issues)?
Where was he in Copenhagen? Answer–late to nowhere.
Where was he on deep water drilling? Answer– Drill, baby, drill.
Where was he on the Gulf spill? Answer–Corporations will handle it better than I and look, everything’s safe to eat again.
Where is he on GMOs?–Answer–Inviting one of their proponents into his administration.
Where is he on the tar sands pipeline?–Answer–I don’t know. Haven’t heard the answer, yet. You tell me. That one seems to be his decision alone, as I understand it.
He’s doing nothing to change the prevailing narrative on climate change(or on anything else, really). In fact he’s doing the opposite. As on so many other fronts he’s embracing the last administration’s positions more than anything else.
So maybe that link info is correct as to Obama’s plans and motivations, but I’ll need more than that one argument to believe it.
There’s too much other shit that just doesn’t seem to jive with that person’s explanations.
Brad, with all the muck you rake you must have arms like Popeye 🙂
Gee, do you think the meeting Christie had with Koch and Koch’s kind words about him had anything to do with this?
“NJ Gov Chris Christie wrong to veto permanent fracking ban”
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerletters/2011/08/nj_gov_chris_christie_wrong_to.html
Thanks, @Dave Lasagna (your name always makes me drool :)). I would like NOTHING better than to believe that Obummer has our backs. But he does not. I haven’t even gone into the violation of our trust & hope in terms of prosecuting whistleblowers, not going after the law breakers, and his OWN war criminal acts, which are especially galling since he somehow won the Nobel Peace Prize. I realize the scariness of the Repugs. I am not an idiot. I was simply stating that the ‘government’ has been taken over by people who have NO CONCERN for the future, and aside from a very few good souls, like Bernie Sanders, the people who have been running the show in Washington are DIIIRRRTTTYYY. And the unions have stopped standing up, and the local governments have been infiltrated so the elections can be gamed and it seems like, in the entire COUNTRY there are so few who have stepped in to positions of governance who are able to(and supported to by local political groups) do the right thing. Now what the ‘right thing’ IS ought to at least include not continuing this incredible run towards the cliff environmentally, spending money wisely to upgrade & repair the infrastructure, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and close the damn nuclear power plants NOW. I am afraid it is likely to be too late for any or all of this to be of any use-we should have stood up & made it so 40 or 50 years ago when the scientists began screaming their heads off about all of this. But we haven’t. And if you REALLY think that Obummer is the guy, good for you, but all I’ve seen is TALK, and a LOT of behind the scenes compromising, looking the other way, allowing perpetrators to walk free, and going after those who are fighting the good fight. And lastly, I must say, playing GOLF with the likes of John Boehner, who has insulted the CRAP out of Obummer, and looking like he enjoys it, just summarizes why I have such contempt for that man. I know it seems a small point, but we’re talking the measure of the man. And I for one am beyond disappointed. I am afraid. Be well, all!
Canning @3: Unfortunately, this got only one measly sentence in the LATimes article:
“The state recently cut funding for volunteer fire departments by 75% as a cost-saving measure.â€
In the midst of the worst wildfire season in Texas history!
Those volunteers are 80 percent of the state’s fire-fighting force and first responders to roughly 90 percent of wildfires. I guess Perry figures if the whole state burns this year, there ain’t much left to burn for the next two.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/us-texas-budget-wildfires-idUSTRE74I39V20110519
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/texas-cut-fire-department-funding-75-percent
http://wonkette.com/452584/texas-teabagger-lawmakers-notice-wildfires-slash-funding-to-firefighters#idc-cover
O/T – Wisconsin DMV again.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/capitol-report/article_335f59fa-d8fe-11e0-8a23-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/07/wisc-dept-of-transportation-official-orders-workers-not-to-offer-voter-ids/
Yeah Brad and Ernest,
these guys are physically and mentally polluters…part of what everyone should recognize as part of this, (what really connects the dots and should set your hair on fire):
http://www.freespeech.org/node/1426
Love ya both,
Tina
ps. Earnest, did you note how wnSteve used your own words against you when there was more notoriety in the post. The wingnuts I have in my home during games don’t stab me in the back at first chance. When reaching across the aisle continue to take the measure of the person.