Andy Kroll

Reporter

Andy Kroll is Mother Jones' Dark Money reporter. He is based in the DC bureau. His work has also appeared at the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit News, Salon, and TomDispatch.com, where he's an associate editor. He can be reached at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. He tweets at @AndrewKroll.

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Dark Money Showdown: Kochs vs. American Crossroads

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Oct. 10, 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Karl Rove.

Think of it as Washington, DC's second earthquake of 2011, except this time it's not natural—it's political.

Politico reported on Monday that the two biggest forces in outside political spending—the Koch brothers and Karl Rove's Crossroads network—have split in their efforts to vanquish Democrats in 2012 and win back the US Senate and White House. Unlike in 2010, when an array of right-leaning outfits, some of them Koch-funded, coordinated their electoral strategies with the Crossroads groups, this time a rift has formed between traditionally Republican and more hard-line, free-market-oriented organizations. And what a money war it will be: For 2012 the Kochs are planning to spending as much as $200 million, while American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS say they'll spend $240 million.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

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Will Perry Return Koch Campaign Cash?

The presidential hopeful ripped companies doing business with Iran. But he took major campaign cash from one such corporation: Koch Industries.

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Oct. 10, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry rails against Iran's "extremist, repressive ideology." He condemns any company who does business with "a terrorist state like Iran" for aiding a country that wants to kill American troops. And as governor he told his state's biggest investment funds to divest from all companies with Iran ties; continuing such investments, he explained, was "investing in terrorism."

But now Perry, a top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, has an Iran problem: One of his most high-profile donors, Koch Industries, for years did business with Iran, helping to grow the Iranian energy industry. Which means that at the same time he was slamming companies profiting off of business with Iran, Perry was pocketing campaign cash from a company doing just that. In light of the Koch-Iran revelations, the left-leaning outside spending group American Bridge is demanding Perry give back his Koch money. "If [Perry] does not immediately return all of the Koch's Iran-tainted money and repudiate their actions, he has no business running to be the leader of the free world," says Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge, which compiled research on Perry's Iran comments and past campaign donations.

[Read the full article]

House GOP Leader Eric Cantor Calls Occupy Protests "Mobs"

—By Andy Kroll

| Fri Oct. 7, 2011 9:03 AM PDT

House Maj. Leader Eric Cantor.

To no one's surprise, conservatives of all stripes have done their best to dismiss and disparage the Occupy Wall Street protests and the hundreds more Occupy protests springing up around the country. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney described the protests as "dangerous" and "class warfare." Right-wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh called the Occupy Wall Street protesters "stupid." And another GOP presidential contender, Herman Cain, not only told those Occupy protesters without a job to blame themselves for being unemployed, but also suggested the protests were a conspiracy "planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration."

On Friday morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor joined the chorus of doubters, even sounding fearful about the protests. At the Values Voter Summit here in Washington, DC, Cantor said, "I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country. And believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans."

Here's the video, via ThinkProgress:

Flat-Lining the Middle Class

Economic numbers to die for.

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Oct. 6, 2011 10:48 AM PDT

This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

Food pantries picked over. Incomes drying up. Shelters bursting with the homeless. Job seekers spilling out the doors of employment centers. College grads moving back in with their parents. The angry and disillusioned filling the streets.

Pan your camera from one coast to the other, from city to suburb to farm and back again, and you'll witness scenes like these. They are the legacy of the Great Recession, the Lesser Depression, or whatever you choose to call it.

In recent months, a blizzard of new data, the hardest of hard numbers, has laid bare the dilapidated condition of the American economy, and particularly of the once-mighty American middle class. Each report sparks a flurry of news stories and pundit chatter, but never much reflection on what it all means now that we have just enough distance to look back on the first decade of the twenty-first century and see how Americans fared in that turbulent period.

[Read the full article]

VIDEO: Obama: Occupy Wall St. "Expresses the Frustrations the American People Feel"

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Oct. 6, 2011 9:50 AM PDT

The scene at Occupy Wall Street.

President Obama made his first public comments on the growing Occupy Wall Street protests in a press conference on Thursday. "I think it expresses the frustrations that the American people feel that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street, and yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place." He went on, "So yes, I think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works."

Here's the video:

It's not just Obama finally weighing in on Occupy Wall Street. At the Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum today, Vice President Joe Biden was asked by by NBC's David Gregory, "Do you stand in solidarity" with Occupy Wall Street? Here's Biden's reply, via Slate's Dave Weigel:

"Look, that's a really fair question. Let's be honest with one another. What is the core of that protest? The core is: The bargain has been breached. The core is: The American people do not think the system is fair, or on the level. That is the core is what you're seeing with Wall Street. Look, there's a lot in common with the Tea Party. The Tea Party started, why? TARP. They thought it was unfair."

Obama's and Biden's sympathetic remarks are big news—not just because they come from the president and vice president of the United States, but also because they signal a possible shift within the Obama administration. Consider what Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff, said about Occupy Wall Street on Tuesday, which was far less encouraging:

"I don't know if it's helpful. I wouldn't characterize it that way. Look it—people express their opinions. In the new social network world, they can do it pretty effectively outside the normal way, historically, people have done it. So whether it's helpful to us, or helpful for people to understand in the political system that there are a lot of people out there concerned about the economy—I know the focus is on Wall Street, but it's a broader discussion that we're having."

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was similarly indifferent. Asked by Atlantic editor James Bennet if he felt any sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Geithner replied: "No, I feel a lot of sympathy for what you might describe as the—as a general sense among Americans is whether, you know, we've lost a sense of possibility."

But if Daley and Geithner doesn't feel much sympathy, Obama and Biden apparently do. And that's a big development for the angry, boisterous protesters making their home in Zuccotti Park.

At the same time, the Democratic rank-and-file continues to rally behind the Occupy protests. Those voicing their support include former presidential candidate Howard Dean; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); House Democratic Caucus leader John Larson (D-Conn.); progressive House members Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison, and Dennis Kucinich; and former senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.