In The Tank

Molly Ball reminds us that the Heritage Foundation’s turn to “hard-edged activism,” especially since Jim DeMint took the helm, poses a long-term threat to conservatives:

[T]here is more at stake in Heritage’s transformation from august policy shop to political hit squad than the reputation of a D.C. think tank or even the careers of a few squishy GOP politicians. … Today, prominent Republicans publicly worry they’re becoming the “stupid party.” In its prime, Heritage rose to rival the power and capacity of the liberal academic establishment, giving conservatives a reputation as serious thinkers. “There was a time when leftist intellectuals dismissed conservatives as the party without intellect. Heritage undid that,” [former Heritage trustee Mickey] Edwards said. “The Republican Party for a while had the high ground. Everyone said that’s where the ideas are, that’s where the intellectual ferment is. When your intellectual ferment is nothing more than a political platform, that [reputation] is undercut. That hurts the conservative movement in general.”