Obama Camp Takes On The Koch Bros.

It may have spent the last few weeks somewhat on the defensive on the issue of so-called Super PACs, but President Obama's re-election campaign has regained an aggressive stance by directly taking on the billionaire conservative Koch brothers.

After spending two years excoriating the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision which gave birth to Super PACs to spend unlimited funds in elections, Obama and his team were put on the defensive earlier this month when his re-election campaign announced that they would support Priorities USA, a super PAC founded by two former Obama White House aides.

Now Jim Messina, the president's campaign manager, is challenging the head of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) -- the special-interest group founded by the oil billionaire Koch brothers -- to disclose who's behind the millions of dollars they're spending to attack Obama and other Democrats.

David and Charles Koch have become known for funding a variety of conservative pressure groups.

In an email sent Wednesday to supporters, Messina takes issue with a characterization by the head of AFP that "... it has tens of thousands of members and contributors from across the country and from all walks of life."

"I'd like them to prove it. So I wrote back, challenging the Koch brothers -- the same guys who recently called the 2012 election 'the mother of all wars' -- to disclose for the public exactly who's behind the millions of dollars they're spending on attack ads," Messina says.

In his email, Messina includes the text of a letter he sent earlier in the day to Philip Ellender, the Kochs' chief lobbyist.

"You argue that Americans for Prosperity is a grassroots organization of everyday citizens. But its emphasis on rolling back environmental protections and blocking a clean energy economy appears to be nothing more than an effort to promote the corporate interests of your employers and others who lavishly, and secretly, fund its operations," Messina writes.

"Moreover, the negative ads AFP has run have been challenged as false by independent fact checkers," he adds. "The Los Angeles Times has reported that, in 2010, Koch Industries and its employees marshaled hundreds of thousands of dollars behind the election of their Republican allies on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who have pursued their interests in Congress. In fact, nine of the 12 new Republicans on the committee signed AFP's pledge to oppose President Obama's proposal to regulate greenhouse gases."

Messina notes that it's been reported that the Kochs and their associates intend to spend $200 million in an attempt to defeat the president and other Democrats in this year's elections.

"You note in your letter that Americans for Prosperity has tens of thousands of members and contributors from all walks of life across the country, suggesting that this is the source of AFP's funding. There is one way to verify your point: disclose those donors for the public to make that judgment," Messina tells Ellender.

Messina urges supporters to sign an online petition promulgated by the Obama campaign to pressure the Kochs to publicly disclose their donors and activities.


Watch more breaking news now on our video feed:

Bookmark The Washington Current and drop back in for more news from the nation's capital.