Hmmm... Democrats Immediately Seized Upon That Erroneous Koch/Keystone Article in the Post

Gabe mentioned this at the end of the podcast last night.

You might remember that, last Friday, two Washington Post writers regurgitated a left-wing "activist" group's fanciful claim that the Koch Brothers were pushing for the Keystone pipeline, because of all their oil sands holdings in Alberta.

The article claimed that they were the biggest lessor of oil sands lands in the province, which is false. When Powerline called them on that, they responded by saying, basically, "Close enough."

The main thrust of their claim -- ignoring their mistatement of fact --is that the Koch brothers are lobbying hard for the Keystone pipeline, because Evil Oil People. The article glosses over tiny details like the fact that the Koch brothers are not in fact lobbying for the Keystone pipeline, as the pipeline would actually hurt them economically.

But the progressives hate the Koch brothers, and desperately need a pair of distracting bogeymen for this election cycle, and progressives hate the Keystone pipeline, so... unconnected dots must nevertheless be connected.

Now comes Powerline to report that promptly after the publication of this false report, Congressional Democrats issued the Koch brothers a menacing letter demanding they answer the question posed in the Washington Post's article.

To wit:

What is Koch Industries doing there?

Yes, Washington Post, what an interesting and probing question. What is an energy company doing leasing tar sands from which oil (also called "energy") can be extracted?

It's all terribly suspicious.

Powerline writes:

But it may have been even more political, and more nakedly partisan, than we suspected. Today Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman wrote a letter to David Robertson, President and COO of Koch Industries. The Democrats’ letter was premised almost entirely on the Washington Post’s discredited article; it repeatedly footnoted that article and the IFG report on which the Post story was based. The two Democrats concluded by requesting that Koch answer questions and produce a long series of documents relating in various ways to the Keystone pipeline.

The Democrats' questions -- hostile, prosecutorial, conspiratorial -- can only be characterized as implying wrongdoing.

If there are dots in need of connection, let's check these dots:

* Democratic politicians in dire need of an election-year distraction

* Far-left agitation groups funded by far-left donors -- by which I mean Democratic donors

* Usefully pliant writers in the "mainstream" media who are ready, willing, and eager to float whatever Conspiracy Balloon that crosses their transom

Yes, let's see some connect-the-dots analysis of that.

Cui bono?

posted by Ace at 12:39 PM

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