Marilinda Garcia and the billionaires

Political fundraising is a demeaning exercise under the best of circumstances, but it must have been particularly humiliating for Marilinda Garcia when she went looking for handouts from some of the nation’s richest men during the Koch brothers’ secret billionaire summit last month.

Two enterprising inewsource reporters infiltrated the exclusive St. Regis Monarch Bay resort in Dana Point, California and got an insider’s view of the mega-donor conference. As Garcia, a young Latina running for Congress in New Hampshire’s second congressional district, was likely making her way to the luxury resort, the journalists eavesdropped on attendees hanging out in the hotel bar:

They talked about political prospects, and one man remarked that he liked “Herrera,” possibly a reference to Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represents Washington’s 3rd congressional district.

“You’re into Latinos, eh?” the other replied.

The man who said he liked Herrera talked about working on Rick Santorum’s campaign, and how it was the “Tylenol quote” that killed Santorum’s chances in the 2012 Republican primary. Foster Friess, one of Santorum’s most prominent backers, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell “back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly,” he said.

They talked about how things said in private would sound terrible in public.

“My wife is a spik, I call her a wetback sometimes,” one man said, laughing.