Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday likened the conservative Koch brothers’ political efforts to “a cult,” and called on them to open up their operations to public scrutiny.
“This is the cult of Koch — and I’m referring to the Koch brothers,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said in his latest attack on David and Charles Koch, who run the sprawling Koch Industries and use some of their massive wealth to fund a network of libertarian-leaning conservative organizations.
The Koch brothers hold closed-door planning meetings to strategize twice a year, and some high-ranking Republicans from Congress regularly attend. Mr. Reid railed against those meetings.
“Why cloak their message in secrecy?” he said. “How can we possibly understand the Kochs’ vision, though, when they and their loyal followers try to do everything in secret?”
Mr. Reid has regularly taken to the floor of the Senate to attack the Koch brothers, and he and his fellow Democrats are advancing a constitutional amendment to rewrite part of the First Amendment in order to push back against some of the Koch network of political groups.
That amendment cleared a subcommittee on a 5-4 vote on Wednesday.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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