Three top Republican Senate candidates heaped praise on the political network built by the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch during a secretive conference held by the brothers this past summer, according to audio of the event. Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst and Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton directly credited donors present at the June 16 retreat in Dana Point, California, for propelling them forward. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner told attendees that his race would likely be decided by the presence of "third party" money - an obvious pitch for generosity from the well-heeled crowd.

There are few politicians more cavalier with the truth and more loathsome than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He delighted in telling a bald-faced untruth about Mitt Romney, namely that he did not pay taxes for 10 years. He now says the Koch brothers didn t pay corporate taxes. He calls the brothers, who provide jobs and legally participate in the American political system, "un-American." His self-enrichment in Nevada is legendary, and he reportedly has been under investigation in a corruption probe.

You might expect the biggest foreign lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest non-Canadian lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.