As passage looked increasingly likely, Tea Party protests grew ever more ugly. Behind them, invisible to the public, was the Kochs’ money. Tim Phillips, the head of Americans for Prosperity, popped up as the organizer of a March 16 “Kill the Bill” protest on Capitol Hill, at which he accused the Democrats of “trying to cram this 2,000-page bill down the throat of the American people!” At a second Capitol Hill rally a few days later, protesters spat on a passing Democratic congressman; mocked Barney Frank, a gay representative from Massachusetts, in lisping catcalls as a “faggot”; and shouted
...more
