One thing you have to give the members of the Koch family: They’re excellent tippers. From The Washington Examiner:

House Speaker Paul Ryan collected nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from Charles Koch and his wife after helping usher through a massive tax reform law. According to a recent campaign finance report filed Thursday, Koch and his wife Elizabeth each donated $247,7000 to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee… The Republican tax overhaul plan passed in December benefited Koch Industries, as it cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, among other cuts. The legislation then got a boost from the Kochs' multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to highlight its benefits. And 13 days after it passed, Charles and Elizabeth Koch made the near $500,000 donation to Team Ryan, which raises money for the congressman, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a political action committee run by Ryan. On the same day, Charles and Elizabeth Koch also each donated $237,000 to the NRCC.

There are a lot of political journalists who are going to be doing hard time in Journalism Purgatory for the puffing they’ve given the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin over the first years of his career. We don’t even have to argue about the price any more with him. It’s 500-large. And, as always, it’s time to revisit the wisdom of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy, from his opinion in Citizens United v. FEC.

“Independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption.”

Deathless brilliance.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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