Kochs

The Kochs, he said, are "trying to shape and control and channel the populist uprising into their own policies. "

The Kochs admitted that they had improperly taken thirty-one million dollars' worth of crude oil, but said that it had been accidental.

Only the Kochs know precisely how much they have spent on politics.

Charles eventually invited him to the Kochs' mansion, to participate in an informal political-discussion group.

Within a few years, the group had mobilized fifty paid field workers, in twenty-six states, to rally voters behind the Kochs' agenda.

So the problem for the Kochs has been trying to create a movement.

Other gifts by the Kochs may be untraceable; federal tax law permits anonymous personal donations to politically active nonprofit groups.

A longtime confidant of the Kochs told Doherty that the brothers wanted to "supply the themes and words for the scripts. "

The Kochs, when asked by reporters if they had given the money, refused to comment.

The Kochs' sense of imperilment is somewhat puzzling.

The Kochs have given millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that criticize environmental regulation and support lower taxes for industry.

However, given the growing unpopularity of the Tea Party, this may be the Kochs' last hurrah.

In 1998, however, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that a consultant on the Kochs' payroll had been involved in the scheme.

According to Doherty's book, the Kochs came to regard elected politicians as merely "actors playing out a script. "

The Kochs and their company have given additional millions to political campaigns, advocacy groups, and lobbyists.

The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline.

The Kochs and their political operatives declined requests for interviews.

Virginia is hosting an institution that the Kochs practically control.

What many people don't know is how the Kochs' anti- regulation political ideology has influenced the way they conduct business.

Senate investigators were upset by the Kochs' tactics.

In 1977, the Kochs provided the funds to launch the nation's first libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.

These are long-standing tenets for the Kochs.