Shutdown Plotters Heritage And Their Koch Funders Squirm Under Spotlight

How can you tell that the shutdown/default gambit, one plotted ever since January by the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth, and other conservative groups working with their favorite Tea Party Republicans in the House and Senate, is a big fat disaster for the GOP?

This is how: Heritage and the Kochs are both trying to pretend they don’t want it.

First, Heritage, which along with fellow conservative group FreedomWorks tries the dipsy-doodle self-pretzel somersault fake distancing method:

Rather than try to hold the debt ceiling vote hostage to the defunding of Obamacare, [Heritage’s Needham] said, the better “tactical” course for Heritage and other key foes of the administration is to continue to focus on annual spending — and on allowing the full opening of government only if Obamacare is dismantled.

“No, we should raise the debt limit,” he said, though he added that he would oppose an increase that extends until after the 2014 election, which is Obama’s preferred outcome.

But with regards to the government shutdown, Needham insisted that his group would continue to oppose any continuing resolution — no matter how short in duration — that did not defund the health care law.

“My tactic is to focus on the CR,” he said.

Matt Kibbe, the president and CEO of the influential conservative group FreedomWorks, also said in a Wednesday interview with The Huffington Post that the debt ceiling should be raised in order to keep the Obamacare fight focused on the continuing resolution.

“This is an emerging set of opinions that looks to be where everybody’s gravitating to,” he said.

Heritage Action, funded by small donors, corporate allies and wealthy individuals Needham refused to name — other than the Koch Brothers, who he said had given $500,000 — has become a powerhouse in a new generation of conservative groups.

Next, we have the Kochs. You know, the people who even Heritage’s Needham admits fund Heritage and similar groups?
They’re trying the old “just because we’ve funded all of these groups for years doesn’t mean we agree with them” gambit:

‘Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care in America, and raise taxes,’ the letter said. ‘However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.’

Too late, Koch heads. You can’t wipe your fingerprints off this one.