You are undoubtedly aware by now that the financial network that Charles and David Koch have established is aiming to spend nearly one billion dollars on the 2016 elections. They'll be numerous public relations outfits, advertising firms, and media experts vying to soak up some cash. Will Citizens United's David Bossie grab a seat on the Koch Brothers' gravy train?
The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision: A short history
In 2008, the conservative movement was preparing to go balls (inflated, not deflated) to the wall against Hillary Clinton. Anti-Hillary projects were developed at a fever pitch: Books were written; documentaries readied; websites set up. Hillary: The Movie, the mother of all attack films -- produced by David Bossie and his organization, Citizens United – was to be aired on cable TV before the Democratic primaries. Everything was in place and then ... and then ... the federal government blocked the film from being aired, arguing that it wasn't a movie, but an extended political commercial. Barack Obama knocked off Clinton in the Democratic primaries, and ultimately won the White House. The best-laid anti-Clinton plans were waylaid.
For conservatives, however, all was not lost. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In 2010, it ruled 5-4 that spending limits in the McCain-Feingold act were unconstitutional, and that allowed virtually unlimited contributions by corporations and unions to political action committees.
David Bossie on the prowl
In October 2013, after CNN and NBC canceled plans for a Hillary Clinton documentary and miniseries, The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond reported that David Bossie and company was preparing another movie about Clinton.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that, "The movie will be released in 2016, ahead of the next presidential election. Like Hillary: The Movie, the upcoming film is not expected to be a flattering portrayal of the presumed Democratic candidate for president, though it will primarily explore her life as secretary of state from 2009-13."
Bossie excitedly told The Hollywood Reporter:
"This is why I went to the Supreme Court. Now that I won that case, I can do whatever I want with this new movie. I can advertise it on radio and TV, show it on TV whenever I want to -- all the things they stopped us from doing with Hillary: The Movie."
David Bossie: Right-Wing Hatchet Man
After the November 2014 elections, Bossie spoke to conservative activists and told them: "Citizens United, our Supreme Court case, leveled the playing field and we're very proud of the impact that had in last night's election," he said. "A robust conversation, which is what a level playing field allows, really creates an opportunity for the American people to get information and make good decisions."
Despite the Citizens United decision, Bossie, president and chairman of Citizens United, has never been instantly recognizable; you probably couldn't pick him out of a lineup, and you'd likely not recognize him if you were sitting next to him on the subway. Nevertheless, as Salon's Heather Digby Parton pointed out late last year in a piece titled "GOP's shady partisan hit man: How dirty trickster David Bossie is ruining politics," Bossie, teaming with "the notorious hatchet man from Arkansas, Floyd Brown of Willie Horton fame," emerged from the anti-Clinton Arkansas swamp to become a spokesperson for all matters related to Whitewater, and later, a hatchet man in his own right.
Salon's Parton noted that recently, Bossie "turned up in Colorado with a new film made in tandem with another longtime conservative operative Michelle Malkin about the leftist billionaires who have turned the state into a dystopian hellhole crawling with gun-grabbing potheads who are trying to destroy the energy industry."
Parton concluded:
"The book on David Bossie is actually a pretty unlikely tale. He's a standard-issue Republican dirty trickster whose mundane wet work has somehow managed to have a profound effect on the American political system for more than 20 years. In the world of partisan hit men he may be the best there ever was. And he isn't done yet."
Even more recently, Bossie emceed – and provided extensive introductions to the potential presidential candidates present -- Rep. Steve King's "Iowa Freedom Summit," which Citizens United co-organized. (Check out
GQ's Jason Zengerle's report titled "Gone Demagoguin'! Ted Cruz and Scott Walker Stage "Fiery" Appeal to Farthest Right," --
http://www.gq.com/...)
Writing about the fifth anniversary of the Citizens United vs. FEC decision, The Huffington Post's John Wellington Ennis recently characterized Citizens United, the organization, as "just one viper in the pit lurking to strike against a fair democratic process – [one that] happened to strike at the right time, after years of advancing ideologue judges deferential to corporate needs over the public interest."
Whether there's a Hillary: The Movie -- The Sequelor no movie, the mother of all preemptive strikes against Hillary Clinton is assured by the recent announcement by the Koch Brothers that their network intends to spend nearly one billion dollars on the 2016 election. While not all of the loot will be aimed at Hillary, expect the onslaught to be launched as soon as – or maybe even before – she announces her plans. And what in 2008 appeared to be the "mother" of all anti-Hillary attacks, will seem downright grandmotherly by the time 2016 rolls around.