Heritage Foundation shows its real colors

As you may have read, Malaysia's President has admitted that a bribe of $1.2 million was paid to Jack Abramoff in order to arrange a meeting between him and Bush. As it turns out, the Heritage Foundation was deeply involved in this. Matt Yglesias picks up the story there:

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Atrios asks with regard to this tale of Jack Abramoff peddling influence on behalf of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammed, "why's the Heritage Foundation interested in having a famous anti-Semitic leader meet with and influence Bush?" The answer's pretty simple -- as Tom Edsall reported on April 15, 2005, "Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew: Business Interests Overlapped Policy." That's the polite way of saying they were on the take. Heritage used to be sharply critical of the Malaysian regime, and then turned on a dime in the summer of 2001:

Heritage's new, pro-Malaysian outlook emerged at the same time a Hong Kong consulting firm co-founded by Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage's president, began representing Malaysian business interests. The for-profit firm, called Belle Haven Consultants, retains Feulner's wife, Linda Feulner, as a "senior adviser." And Belle Haven's chief operating officer, Ken Sheffer, is the former head of Heritage's Asia office and is still on Heritage's payroll as a $75,000-a-year consultant.

This is some very sordid stuff. It's not specifically on the subject of Heritage's Malaysia hijinks, but this old piece on think tanks for sale by Steve Clemons is worth revisiting.

--Matthew Yglesias