Wing-Nut Welfare Addendum

My idol Paul Krugman uses the expression "wing-nut welfare" to describe the system of think tanks and other institutions that support conservative idealogues while they are out of office (regard Donald Rumsfeld's move to the Hoover Institute after he was outed as secretary of defense, Karl Rove at Fox News, etc.). I think a minor corollary could be added, let's call it the Very Serious People corollary. Wing-nut welfare is basically the system whereby movement conservatives are garuanteed of a job, no matter what they do. The same can be said for establishment media figures, like Jeffrey Rosen, who after his notorious hit job on Sonia Sotomayor, was rewarded by Time Magazine with a feature article on her racial attitudes. Good grief.