Weekend Open Thread

Fire away.

I'll suggest a topic to get you started:

Firebrand right-winger Michelle Malkin was once vaguely libertarian (indeed, back in 1999,she even penned an anti-drug war story for Reason about how the city of Seattle abused its abatement law to seize the homes of residents).  I have a friend who worked with Ann Coulter early in her career who swears she used to be smart, thoughtful, and intellectually honest.  Before his gig at theNY Times, Paul Krugman was a respected, only slightly left-of-center economist.  Conservative populist, champion-of-the-everyman Bill O'Reilly went to Harvard.

My question:  Of all the shrill wingnuts on both ends of the linear political spectrum, which ones do you think actually believe their own bullshit?  That is, which loudmouths are authentic, and which are just putting on an act, having realized that the shrill stuff is what sells books and attracts readers/viewers/listeners?

Remember to show your work.

The thread need not be limited to the examples above, or the question above.

ALSO:  Had to add this.  Nick noted this week how President Bush Medal-of-Freedomed the ONDCP's failed ad campaigns in his new budget. Watch Tucker Carlson pummel drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder over the commercials.

Hat tip to Drug War Rant .