http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/opinion/22brooks.html

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Back in 1995, when Republicans took over Congress, a new cadre of
daring and original thinkers arose. These bold innovators had a key
insight: that you no longer had to choose between being an activist
and a lobbyist. You could be both. You could harness the power of K
Street to promote the goals of Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich. And
best of all, you could get rich while doing it!
Before long, ringleader Grover Norquist and his buddies were signing
lobbying deals with the Seychelles and the Northern Mariana Islands
and talking up their interests at weekly conservative strategy
sessions - what could be more vital to the future of freedom than the
commercial interests of these two fine locales?

Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the
virtues of international sons of liberty like Angola's Jonas Savimbi
and Congo's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving
compensation from these upstanding gentlemen, according to The Legal
Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited by Savimbi's
little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring
contribution to the cause of Reaganism.

Soon the creative revolutionaries were blending the high-toned forms
of the think tank with the low-toned scams of the buckraker. Ed
Buckham, Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, helped run the U.S. Family
Network, which supported the American family by accepting large
donations and leasing skyboxes at the MCI Center, according to Roll
Call. Michael Scanlon, DeLay's former spokesman, organized a think
tank called the American International Center, located in a house in
Rehoboth Beach, Del., which was occupied, according to Andrew
Ferguson's devastating compendium in The Weekly Standard, by a former
"lifeguard of the year" and a former yoga instructor.

Ralph Reed, meanwhile, smashed the tired old categories that used to
separate social conservatives from corporate consultants. Reed signed
on with Channel One, Verizon, Enron and Microsoft to shore up the
moral foundations of our great nation. Reed so strongly opposes
gambling as a matter of principle that he bravely accepted $4 million
through Abramoff from casino-rich Indian tribes to gin up a
grass-roots campaign.

As time went by, the spectacular devolution of morals accelerated.
Many of the young innovators were behaving like people who, having
read Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative," embraced the
conservative part while discarding the conscience part.
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