August 14, 2014

Joni Ernst is running for Tom Harkin's Senate seat in Iowa, and she is anything but moderate. She's a hand-picked Koch extremist who is being handled by the Koch machine, but according to Yahoo! News, she's really a moderate who just tilted to the right for the primaries.

You see, she just flirted with the extremist right wing of the Republican party:

In a statement issued Tuesday evening, campaign spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel characterized Ernst's race to date: "In a crowded five way primary Joni was able to build a consensus and win the nomination by a significant majority. Joni is now working to build a broad coalition of Iowans as she works to defeat Bruce Braley in the general election."

Ernst has expressed out-of-the-mainstream views on a range of issues, from impeaching President Barack Obama to the issue of states acting to nullify federal law, for which she was criticized by the editorial board of the Des Moines Register.

But her positions on the 1992 U.N. recommendations for countries to become more environmentally sustainable — which Beck made the basis of his novel "Agenda 21," about a “violent and tyrannical government” ruling “what was once known as America”are perhaps her greatest flirtation with the politics of the conspiracy-minded.

And unlike her impeachment remarks, the breadth and length of her response on the topic of Agenda 21 seems to belie a deep knowledge of the conspiracy theory floated by conservative radio icons on an issue on which many candidates would likely have no prepared talking points or strongly held opinions. Many sources familiar with Iowa politics note, however, that the question of Agenda 21 is more frequently discussed in the Hawkeye state’s agricultural communities than it is nationally.

That's no flirtation, Yahoo! That's full-blown marriage with a couple of kids right there. But if there's any lingering doubt, let's have a look at her communications director, Gretchen Hamel.

What did Hamel do before she was Ernst's handler? She managed two very large Koch-linked 501c4 organizations that were at the heart of the latest iteration of the Kochtopus -- Bankrupting America and Public Notice. Both of these organizations received millions in "grants" from primary Koch conduits like the 60 Plus Association.

There's a reason Ernst is so well-versed on the Agenda 21 conspiracy nonsense. It benefits her biggest benefactors, who prey on fearful conspiracy-minded voters to promote their polluting ways. Hamel is there as her handler and her conduit to the billionaires who own her.

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