"I was disturbed by it," admits Robert Poole, editor of Reason, a California magazine that is the voice of the Libertarian movement's right wind. Several weeks before the Libertarian party staged its national convention in Los Angeles last September, David Koch sent a letter to the delegates announcing that he would contribute several hundred thousand dollars to the 1890 campaign if he were nominated. In Los Angeles he upped the ante to a half-million. "David Koch has not been active in the party, "concedes Poole, "But everyone made the calculations, and they were explicit about it in their speeches, He was a Libertarian, he agreed with us, he was offering money we couldn't otherwise get.." (Federal campaign laws limit the amount individual may contribute to a presidential campaign, but places no restrictions on a candidate's spending in his own race.) The vote was never in doubt. "There was no good reason not to nominate him," Poole said.
Koch's name is not a household word, not even to the delegates who voted for him, and if he has his way, it won't become one any time soon: he is conducting what one prominent Libertarian calls a "front porch campaign." But the party did not sell its nomination to a total stranger, David Koch, 39, head of Koch Engineering, is the brother of Charles Koch, 44, chairperson and chief executive officer of Koch Industries. Charles Koch is also the Friedrich Engels of Libertarianism. More than any other single factor, it is his money that has transformed the Libertarian movement from a doughty band of true believers into a political force that is on the verge of becoming the first party since the Socialists to offer a serious challenge to the "Republocrat" monopoly. <SNIP> Recommended. http://www.potowmack.org/seduclft.html This website also has much on the RTKABA aka the 2nd Amendment. And Whittaker Chambers review of Ayn Rand! http://www.potowmack.org/aynrand.html -- Michael Pugliese