So Mahathir Mohammed manged to buy off the Heritage Foundation by funnelling money to a PR consulting firm run by the boss’s wife. The Washington Post has the dirty details. Judd Legum at Think Progress shows that the sell-out started before, not after, 9-11.
Matt Yglesias disapproves. And Brad DeLong thinks it’s time to shut the place down.
I, on the other hand, take a more nuanced policy analyst’s view of the issue. Admitedly “the Heritage Foundation selling out to a foreign anti-Semitic regime” sounds bad. But that’s only if you fail to ask the ever-important question, “Compared to what?”
Compared to other things the Heritage Foundation has done and might do, selling out to Mahathir Mohammed is pretty harmless. If this diverts the foundation’s attention from, e.g., helping the plutotheocrats gain and hold power, on balance it has to be counted A Good Thing.
Note to Jewish conservatives: Remember, you’re only honorary whites. Your right-wing friends will sell you out in a nanosecond.