But we know he is not completely miserable when in human company. Herman Cain has a deep and worshipful admiration for the Koch Brothers, those wealthy benefactors of the Republican Party whose contempt for working class people easily matches his own. You remember the Koch Brothers. They were the ones who wanted Wisconsin public employees reduced to the status of peons while eviscerating social services to the elderly, the disabled and the very young. Thousands of Wisconsinites braved the cold last winter to try and stop the Koch Brothers onslaught.

We know Herman Cain admires the Koch Brothers because he said so himself:
“I know the Koch Brothers. The Koch Brothers helped to start to an organization called Americans for Prosperity. And I did some speaking when they were starting that organization, and I’m very proud of the relationship that I have with the Koch Brothers, as well as Americans for Prosperity. I have also attended some of their seminars and have found them very informative. So I don’t have a close relationship with the Koch Brothers, but I know them and I respect them, and they know me and respect me.” Source: Think Progress
Mr. Cain is being uncharacteristically modest here. Cain once led the Americans for Prosperity’s Prosperity Expansion Project. PEP (get it?) paid Cain to make speeches across the country on behalf of the Koch Brothers. His speechmaking for the Koch brothers denounced all of their favorite demons: unions, corporate taxes, environmental regulations, the EPA, social services and climate change science.

The Koch brothers spread corporate propaganda like old fashioned farmers spread manure on their fields, but they also spread something else more immediately lethal than their ugly words. They are environmental criminals who have been fined millions for openly flouting the law. Some of the chemicals they dump into the environment are lethal
“Koch Industries units have ...repeatedly run afoul of environmental regulations, resulting in five criminal convictions since 1999 in the U.S. and Canada. From 1999 through 2003, Koch Industries was assessed more than $400 million in fines, penalties and judgments.” Source: Bloomberg Markets
Take the small town of Crossett, Arkansas, a modest working class hamlet near a Georgia-Pacific plant that produces bleached cardboard, the stuff commonly used in paper cups and frozen food packaging. Georgia-Pacific is a division of Koch Industries. Georgia-Pacific also produces prodigious quantities of waste water laced with formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen.

Georgia-Pacific dumps it in the nearby streams. The oily residue floats on top of the water, often giving off visible fumes as it winds through forests and wetlands. This is illegal, but the financial reach of the Koch Brothers is long and not even the EPA seems willing to prosecute them for this crime. The Koch Brothers-linked Formaldehyde Council even tries to downplay its known dangers. Ironically, David Koch was diagnosed with prostate cancer and has donated millions toward cancer research. On the one hand he giveth away charitable donations and with the other he giveth away cancer.

Thanks to the pollution from the Koch Brothers owned Georgia-Pacific plant, people in Crossett are dying of cancer. They end their days breathing into masks with their medical tanks nearby. Then they are laid to rest in the small local cemetery. Flowers are left at the grave sites by grieving relatives...and the dying goes on. The Koch brothers have not sent flowers, sympathy cards or compensation, only vicious personal attacks on the victims and their families.

The Koch Brothers have made it clear that they have not formally endorsed anyone for president. But Herman Cain, their favorite speechmaker and a former cancer patient himself, is their unofficial favorite for the job. Is the Godfather of Pizza really only a PR flack for the Godfathers of Corporate Crime?

The next time you run into Herman Cain, why don’t you ask him yourself,”Does cancer really go better with Koch?”