First Read notes the winners of the Supreme Court decision abolishing aggregate campaign finance limits are the wealthy and political parties but the biggest winners “are the political consultants and the entire industry of American politics.”

“The loser from yesterday’s decision, however, is the individual campaign. With the power of Super PACs (thanks Citizens United) and now the increased bank accounts of the parties (thanks McCutcheon), individual campaigns are going to have less power than they’ve had in a long, long time. An individual campaign has so little control now over its own message and the issues it wants to focus on; it’s all going to be dictated more and more by the outside groups and the billionaires.”

Matt Bai: “I’ve never met David and Charles Koch, the conservative billionaires who have apparently set out to acquire our democracy, much as you or I might hope to purchase a timeshare. When I think of them, which isn’t all that often, I tend to picture Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow, who played industrialists called the ‘Motch’ brothers in a recent comedy called The Campaign, and whose main goal in the film was to relocate a Chinese sweatshop to North Carolina.”

“But after taking a closer look at how they’re spending this small part of their fortune, here’s what I do know about the infamous Koch brothers: They are very, very smart when it comes to political investing. And the real problem for irate liberals is that their most avid contributors aren’t.”

Former Washington Post managing editor Robert Kaiser writes that he isn’t going to miss Washington.

“Why? Because for me, the fun has drained out of the game. So has the substance. I used to get excited about the big issues we covered — civil rights, women’s liberation, the fate of the country’s great cities, the end of the Cold War. I loved the politicians who brought those issues to life, from Everett McKinley Dirksen and Howard Baker (Dirksen’s son-in-law, curiously) to Russell B. Long and Edmund Muskie, from Bob Dole to George Mitchell — all people who knew and cared a great deal about governing. Watching them at work was exhilarating. Watching their successors, today’s senators and representatives, is just depressing.”

New York Times: “From its inception in 1973, the Heritage Foundation has provided the blueprint for the Republican Party’s ideas in Washington. In doing so, it has proved to be the most durable organization of its kind.”

“But under Mr. DeMint, a South Carolinian who gave up his Senate seat last year to take the helm, Heritage has shifted. Long known as an incubator for policy ideas and the embodiment of the party establishment, it has become more of a political organization feeding off the rising populism of the Tea Party movement.”

Lee Aitken: “Did this torrent of money–raised and spent under the new rules of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision–make anyone rich? Did it create new financial incentives that changed the way the game is played or altered the political discourse? Has it, as some argue, bankrolled the polarization of America?”

“These legitimate questions are difficult to answer under current disclosure laws. And the U.S. press has been oddly complacent about that fact, continuing a tradition that puts the financial gains of political operatives–who are great sources and valued customers of the big media companies–off limits. The presumption seems to be that these men and women are motivated by ideology and personal loyalty, their payoff, if any, just a happy coincidence and a private matter.”

Boston Globe: “In a sterile office building a few miles from the White House, Mitt Romney’s old campaign manager has a new mission: foiling Democratic candidates across the country.”

“Republicans say that Matt Rhoades’s fledgling political group, America Rising, is attempting to build the party’s most sophisticated, modern, and centralized opposition research effort ever. It is key to the GOP’s hopes of resurrecting itself after the soul-crushing presidential defeat of 2012.”

“But what’s most notable about American Rising is this: It is the first high-profile political combat organization to rely heavily on a for-profit company, rather than operating as a nonprofit group, exploiting increasingly lax campaign finance laws to maximum advantage.”

“At editorial meetings in Bloomberg L.P.’s headquarters this week, Michael Bloomberg gave clear signs that he would not be taking a hands-off approach as he returned to his old company,” the New York Times reports.

“Just two week’s removed from City Hall, and in his first days back at the media giant that he owns and that carries his name, Mr. Bloomberg surprised many employees by showing up at all of the 7:30 a.m. meetings where the day’s big journalistic decisions are made.”

The Atlantic profiles GOP consultant Frank Luntz, noting that “politics hasn’t been his principal business for some time: He still advises his friends here and there, but he no longer has any ongoing political contracts. (Corporations and television networks, not politicians, are his main sources of income.)”

“Luntz would also like to break into Hollywood as a consultant, but he can’t get his calls returned. He can’t figure it out. He thinks it must be a partisan thing. In every other industry, he says, 90 percent of his presentations result in a contract. But in entertainment, he pitches and pitches and pitches (he wouldn’t tell me which studios or shows) and things seem to go well, but then there’s some excuse. Not this time. Not the right project.”

Daily Beast: “If the torrent of 50th anniversary articles, symposia, blog posts, TV documentaries and docudramas, historical reenactments, new books, and reissues has left you aghast at the bottomless self-involvement of your elders, please keep in mind that the deluge this month is nothing compared to the steady rain that fell on us almost every month between 1963 and 1967.”

“Remembering JFK became an industry in those years. The double murder of a U.S. president and his suspected assassin–within 48 hours of each other–multiplied expon-entially the number of angles that journalists, historians, self-appointed gumshoes, and total crackpots could pursue. The light that bounced off those shattering events, somehow mirroring each other, has many of us still trying to see straight and fit the pieces together in a logical pattern.”

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, one of the architects of the federal government’s rescue of the financial system, is joining private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“An elite group including some of the area’s most powerful business leaders, developers, and construction experts is quietly exploring the prospect of bringing the 2024 Summer Olympic Games to Boston,” the Boston Globe reports.

The group “has recruited former governor Mitt Romney, who ran the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Games, as a key adviser.”

Los Angeles Times: “The last week of standoffs and stalemates in Washington won’t help Congress’ dismal approval ratings. And the likelihood that most government programs will begin shutting down Tuesday already has started disrupting the lives of millions of federal government workers, contractors and their families.”

“But for one group — fundraisers who collect cash for members of Congress and those hoping to join the club — the shutdown threat is a windfall.”

“Anthony Weiner, whose mayoral bid imploded following revelations that he’d continued sexting long after his resignation from Congress, was already plotting a Plan B more than six months before he lost his bid for Gracie Mansion,” Politicker reports.

According to an industry insider, Mr. Weiner wanted to gauge how a failed mayoral bid would impact his prospects of landing a lucrative TV or radio gig.

Said the insider: “He was exploring his options and what they were at the time and what they may be should he run an unsuccessful campaign. It just seemed that exploring his media options became a factor in running for mayor.”

The Washington Post reports Hillary Clinton has given or has scheduled at last 14 speeches, for which she charges $200,000 per appearance.

“As a former secretary of state and U.S. senator, Clinton is following a path well-worn by retired politicians such as her husband — who has racked up tens of millions of dollars in speaking fees since leaving office — and by State Department predecessors such as Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. But the extent of Clinton’s speaking schedule, and the size of her standard fee, is more unusual for someone considering a run for president.”

Gawker obtained documents from the City University of New York which show former CIA Director David Petraeus will be paid $200,000 a year to teach course that takes him about three hours of work and will be aided by a group of graduate students to take care of “course research, administration, and grading.”

“That works out to approximately $2,250 per hour. CUNY adjuncts usually earn less than $3,000 per course.”

The Washingtonian has a must-read piece on the unraveling of FreedomWorks, run by former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) and his behind-the-scenes strategist Matt Kibbe.

“Through their long crusade, the two had become as close as family, and Kibbe saw Armey as a father figure. But at the very moment that their small-government revolution was finally happening, Armey and Kibbe declared war on each other, dividing the FreedomWorks staff into opposing factions just weeks before the most important election of their lives. Employees scrambled to keep the infighting out of the press, fearing that the embarrassment would hurt Republicans at the ballot box, and they struggled to make sense of the rift.”

Former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt announced they are founding a communications firm called The Incite Agency in Washington, the Huffington Post reports.

They will be joined by another Obama campaign aide, Adam Fetcher, who will serve as managing director.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) is looking to open a new law firm this September, CNN reports.

“The firm will be based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and will focus on plaintiff work, the source said. Before entering politics, Edwards was a nationally known attorney who specialized in representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice, personal injury and product liability lawsuits, earning millions.”