I’ve enjoyed reading Alan Ehrenhalt’s work, but today he makes an obnoxious comment about conservatives in his WSJ review of Matthew Continetti’s new book, The K Street Gang:

the Republican scandals of the past decade were scandals of a special kind, perpetrated by political activists whose common characteristic was disdain for government of all forms, at all levels. It was Grover Norquist, Mr. Abramoff’s longtime ally, who became famous for vowing to make government so small that he could “drown it in a bathtub.” Mr. Abramoff expressed similar sentiments.
If one truly believes that — believes that public enterprises essentially amount to coercion and theft — then it is only a small step to deciding that, since the money in the federal Treasury doesn’t belong there, one might as well liberate some of it and get rich in the process. This is what Mr. Abramoff and his associates believed, and this is what they did.

Got that? If you’re a conservative who thinks the size of government should be reduced, then it’s “only a small step” to committing robbery. There’s no free link to the review, but maybe that’s a good thing. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that Continetti was an intern at NR a few years ago.