Koch Event or GOP Dinner? Gee, Tough Choice

Original Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/11/01/koch_event_or_gop_dinner_gee_tough_choice_.html

By David Weigel

Shot:
Five GOP candidates will court Iowa Republicans this Friday night in Des Moines, at the state’s 2011 Ronald Reagan Dinner — but two big names won’t be there... Herman Cain and Mitt Romney — the two leading candidates in the most recent poll of Iowa.

Chaser:

Americans for Prosperity Foundation is excited to announce Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will speak at the 5th annual Defending the American Dream Summit on November 4th & 5th in Washington, DC.

And another chaser:

Americans For Prosperity Foundation is excited to announce that businessman and GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain will be joining Mark Levin, John Fund, Grover Norquist and many more at the 2011 Defending the American Dream Summit on November 4th & 5th at the Washington Convention Center.

Cain has worked with Americans for Prosperity* for years. Romney has actually put in appearances at countless AFP events, something forgotten when you read something about how he "never goes to Tea Parties." This weekend, they'll let the ankle-biters play with the Iowa GOP -- you know, the guys who benefitted from that oh-so-predictive straw poll that Michele Bachmann won -- while they appear before national Tea Party activists and meet with the people who will help fund the next Republican campaign.

*It's a bit simple to say it's Koch-funded. Basically, David Koch once bankrolled Citizens for a Sound Economy. Dick Armey was tapped to run it in 2003. After a few years, Armey blanched at the Kochs' micromanagement, and CSE split into his FreedomWorks and Koch's AFP.