They keep very quiet about it, too. The sock puppets at Fox News yap away endlessly about big bad George Soros, but never, never say a word about the Kochs and how they have bankrolled much of the rising fringe of the Right.

The Kochs and their fat wallets are the silent partners of the conservative media/think tank/lobbying complex. They deserve far more public scrutiny – and not of the puff-piece variety this post demonstrates.

Your comment led me to review Mr. Mak’s blogger profile. Somehow I’m not surprised that he was a “Koch Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.” Or perhaps I should be surprised that someone who is so smart can be so transparent about his cheerleading for a former benefactor.

This profile was a puff piece and another example of how a “mainstream” media outlet treats a conservative figure with kid gloves.

But wait … this was “an almost unimprovable profile” per Tim Mak.

So the question becomes – are Mr. Mak’s standards just too low? Or does Mr. Mak see the best interview of a Republican power broker being a People-magazine style interview which reveals the minimal amount of useful information?

I think this statement is representative of the problem with much conservative thought today. For all of the talk about how conservatives are individualistic and rely on the free market, the modern conservative movement is very much the result of central planning groupthink. Think tank organizations that are organized by wealthy power brokers, disseminate ideas to the footsoldiers in an organized, almost bureaucratic manner.

I’m sure Mr. Koch is very charismatic and personable, but I’m less concerned about how well he presents in an interview and more about the ideology he is pushing. He may say that he is against elements of the movement that “go too far” however he clearly will not identify these elements. He gave a very lawyerly answer to the interviewer with regard to his connection to the Tea Party. This profile was a puff piece and another example of how a “mainstream” media outlet treats a conservative figure with kid gloves.

Contracts signed between companies, or between a company and an individual, would be worthless if there was no mechanism for enforcement.

But what a lot of folks on the Left tend to forget is that there’s a big difference between legality and government control.

They always think that they invented infrastructure, education, and prosperity. Bah.