Pompeo takes on Kochs’ critics

Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, authored a Politico commentary calling on the Obama administration and congressional Democrats to stop harassing the Kochs. It was his comeback to the unsuccessful efforts of Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bobby Rush, D-Ill., to demand that “a representative of Koch Industries” testify at a hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline, a project Koch has said it has no stake in. “Charles Koch and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries, are U.S. citizens, taxpayers, entrepreneurs and employers. Their businesses employ nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. alone,” Pompeo wrote, noting its 2,600 Kansas employees. “The company has never been bailed out by the U.S. taxpayers. Given that many Americans are now desperate for jobs, we should be begging entrepreneurs to look for new opportunities – not attacking them because their companies might make a profit.” Pompeo also noted that the first sentence of Obama’s first re-election ad “attacks” the Kochs. “That the Obama administration and its allies use private citizens as symbols to be attacked and vilified is unfair and deeply threatening to our civic life and the rule of law,” Pompeo wrote.