Discusses the 2005 incident involving Bandow and Jack Abramoff and reminds us of previous incidents of left-vs.-right attacks (and vice versa), concluding with quotes from Mises' Liberalism (1927)
The innovation of the think tank was the first step toward helping the [political] parties put a veneer of science and public spiritedness on their looting. Beyond their pretensions, however, it is the dreadful reality that government-centered think tanks are nothing more than intellectual covers for special interests, and this is true of the right and the left. Today their main function is to launder money so that intellectuals and others ... can appear to avoid overt conflicts of interest. How can you know the difference between the fake and the real institutions of research? Their proximity to power is the best clue.