Govs. Rick Perry And Rick Scott Go AWOL During State Emergencies To Attend Secret Koch Event

By Marie Diamond and Alex Seitz-Wald on Jun 29, 2011 at 4:15 pm

As Texas faced some of the worst wildfires in its history and a severe drought crisis that has caused the federal government to declare the entire state a disaster area, its governor was schmoozing with well-heeled conservative donors in Vail, Colorado at a retreat organized by the right-wing industrialist Koch brothers. Gov. Rick Perry (R) left his state without notifying constituents or the press and dodged inquiries into his whereabouts. The media had to resort to tracking the tail number of a private plane owned by one of Perry’s major campaign donors. “This was an opportunity to talk about the economic success in Texas,” a spokesperson said, denying that the trip had anything to do with a potential presidential run.

Perry has spent the past two months complaining that the Obama administration has not been paying enough attention to his state’s fires.

Meanwhile, in Florida, days after declaring a state of emergency for his state’s own climate crisis, Gov. Rick Scott (R) disappeared over the weekend, failing to disclose his whereabouts in his public schedule and refusing to respond to numerous press inquiries. Yesterday, Scott finally admitted he left the state without informing his constituents to attend the the Koch summit. Florida press spent most of the past few days trying to track down the rogue governor while more than 300 wildfires continue to burn in the state:

​We finally have an answer as to where Gov. Rick Scott was this weekend, and it confirms our suspicion: at the billionaire Koch brothers’ secret conference outside Vail, Colorado.

St. Petersburg Times reporter Alex Leary got the information out of him, a day after the governor’s spokesman wouldn’t confirm or deny whether Scott was there.

“I told anybody who asked me,” the governor told the Times, apparentlyignoring the fact that he spends most of his days playing hide-and-seek from the media.

For the first time since he took office, Scott’s public schedule was empty this past weekend, leading most to assume he was trying to conceal his attendance at the Koch event. Scott eventually admitted that he addressed attendees at the retreat, but was vague about what he said.

The Koch brothers host a few of these gatherings each year to bring together conservative lawmakers and corporate titans to discuss their agenda and raise money for political groups, such as Americans for Prosperity and other Koch-funded enterprises. A January retreat in California reportedly raised $49 million for conservative campaigns.

Koch Industries spent $1.2 million helping elect Republican governors in 2010 alone, and have spent millions more pushing their radical anti-union, anti-health care agenda in the states. In response, the AFL-CIO published a guide called “8 Signs Your Governor Has A Koch Problem.” Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) also attended the Koch event.

Senate GOP To Dems On Debt Limit: Give Us Huge Medicare Cuts, Or Raise It Yourself

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2011, 4:07PM

Senate Republicans are threatening openly to throw up their hands and let Democrats vote to raise the debt limit on their own if President Obama doesn't cave and agree to trillions of dollars in entitlement cuts and zero tax increases. Here's how NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) put it, speaking to reporters Tuesday:

"I am wondering if as the deadline approaches, whether our Democratic colleagues in the Senate have realized that unless the President's willing to do a grand bargain that's good for the American people how much he's opening his own political party -- candidates running for 2012 in the United States Senate -- to a referendum on his failure to reach a grand bargain," Cornyn said. "Obviously if it's possible to deal with the spending problem and the entitlement reforms, that's our first choice. But if the President and his party refuse to do the right thing, then in the Senate they're going to be required to vote to raise the debt limit and we'll have a referendum in 2012 on that decision. I don't think if I were a senator on the other side of the aisle I would view that prospect with a lot of pleasure."

Translation: give us what we want, or we'll leave it to you to avoid default, then spend the next year and a half running against you on the grounds that you voted to give President Obama a blank check for massive government spending.

That wouldn't be true. But it doesn't have to be for Republicans' political purposes. Raising the debt limit polls about as high as razor-wire chewing gum. And whereas in the Senate the responsibility for raising it lies with the Democrats, in the House it's up to the GOP leadership. So this is either a different recipe for defaulting on the debt, or a turf-protecting way of passing the buck to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

Everyone knows Boehner is stuck between the absolute imperative that Congress raise the debt limit, and the highly partisan demands of his caucus, which won't vote to allow the country to borrow more money without simultaneously cutting a big hole into the social safety net. For weeks, that put him in the middle of the legislative food fight.

But as House GOP demands escalated, and after Boehner's top negotiator, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), walked out of debt negotiations last week, the Senate is now the center of the action. And the dynamic on that side of the Capitol is very different.

In some ways, it's tougher for Democrats over here. And it's hard to see an easy way out of it for them.