Why Do the Kochs Want to Kill Cato Institute?: Ezra Klein

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- It seems the effort by billionairesCharles and David Koch to take control of the libertarian CatoInstitute is going poorly. “We are not acting in a partisanmanner, we seek no ‘takeover’ and this is not a hostile action,”Charles Koch told Bloomberg News. When you are denyingpartisanship, takeover ambitions and hostile intentions in onesentence, you probably need to rethink your PR strategy.

The Koch brothers have long supported Cato, which theyhelped found in Washington in 1977. Recently, however, they havecome to consider their creation politically unreliable. In ameeting with Robert Levy, the chairman of Cato’s board ofdirectors, they expressed their intention to remake Cato into aparty organ that would aid their campaign to unseat PresidentBarack Obama. To do so, however, they need control of the board.They intend to get it by suing the widow of William Niskanen, arecently deceased board member, for control of Niskanen’sshares.