Maybe ASU paid Clintons with ... Koch brothers cash!

I was out of town last week and missed all the hooha about Arizona State University paying $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation for a Clinton Global Initiative University event ASU hosted in 2014.

The a university spokesman said the money didn't come from taxpayer funds the university receives.

In a perfect world, ASU would have taken the 500 grand it needed for the Clintons from the millions of dollars they've accepted from the Koch brothers.

Remember them?

The Koch brothers, Charles and David, owners of Koch Industries? America's second-largest privately held company? The guys who plan on spending $900 million to get a Republican candidate elected president in 2016?

They've also dumped a ton of cash on ASU.

The Charles Koch Foundation gave $3.5 million in ASU's new Center for the Study of Economic Liberty in order to spread the brothers political and economic philosophy in the guise of academic scholarship. And the center, in turn, paid a former senior economist at the Goldwater Institute (sort of a Koch brothers junior collect) to research and publish a tax study to the brothers liking.

In addition, ASU accepted more than $1 million in Koch money for a history professor's position in the Center for Political Thought and Leadership, a job right out of the public relations department of billionaire brothers named Koch.

None of that has generated the kind of public angst that's out there over the $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

Even Sen. John McCain (who participated in a panel with former President Bill Clinton at the ASU event) weighed in, saying, "It's just regrettable that they (ASU) did it, and I think most citizens of Arizona would think that the money could be better spent on scholarships for young citizens of our state who do not have the money to pay the tuition."

Then again, the kids don't have the money to pay the tuition because the Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey – who has sucked up big time to the Koch brothers – continue to slash university funding, which forces increases in tuition.

There plenty of hypocrisy to go around, it seems.

But if there were any justice in this world, any at all, ASU would have paid the Clintons with cash they got from the Kochs.

Hey, a fella's got to dream.