Washington “think tanks” are more like lobbyists than academic institutions these days, writes Bruce Bartlett. And it’s only going to get worse. “The problem is that the pressure on researchers to conform to partisan political objectives is going to become even more intense, and if they are going to be expected to function as de facto lobbyists they are going to expect to be paid like lobbyists, which will ratchet up pressure to raise money from those with a purely bottom-line perspective,” he writes.