Horrigan: One party's gone crazy; the other's gone wimpy. : Stltoday

Horrigan: One party's gone crazy; the other's gone wimpy. : Stltoday

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On Monday, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed article by Charles G. Koch that condemned "rampant cronyism" between business and government. It was as if Michael Phelps had written an article condemning swimming.

Mr. Koch (rhymes with "joke") is chairman and CEO of Koch Industries of Wichita, Kan., the second-largest private company in America. It has interests in petroleum, chemicals, lumber and paper, fertilizer, ranching, commodities and pipelines. It owns a big piece of the Republican Party.

Mr. Koch and his brother, David H. Koch, each own 42 percent of the company. Forbes magazine estimates their combined net worth at $50 billion.

In his article, Charles Koch acknowledged that his company benefits from certain government policies. You think?

The article
 does not mention the Koch brothers' multimillion-dollar contributions to conservative politicians and causes, their support for conservative think tanks, their funding of anti-labor organization and anti-global warming initiatives and their funding of Americans for Prosperity, which has secretly funded the Tea Party movement and funneled tens of millions in secret donations to political campaigns.

If there are bigger crony capitalists working in America today, their names do not leap immediately to mind. The cynicism is breathtaking.