Thomas Frank: Conservatives and Their Carnival of Fraud

I wonder if, back in the rosy-fingered dawn of our conservative era, all those Adam Smith-tied evangelists of "limited government" had any idea that they were greasing the skids for a character like 22-year-old arms dealer Efraim Diveroli?

Mr. Diveroli, whose tousled, slightly confused visage recalls the perpetually stoned Jeff Spicoli from the 1982 film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," was the improbable recipient of a 2007 government contract to supply ammunition to our allies in Afghanistan.