It looks to me like this guy has been at it for some time; I don't think this is "news" or "breaking ranks" -- he was a Waco "expert" for a long time before this, too.
His "solid Republican establishment credentials" are about as solid as Paul O'Neil's were . . .
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reynolds/reynolds-arch.html
That is: he's an outsider. Read this interview . . .
http://www.mises.org/story/1216
"I went from a professor of economics, with a career-long specialization in labor, to chief economist at the Department of Labor. I was in this position for 16 months. The position came about because of an old contact. I'm glad I did it, but my experience confirmed everything that the Austrian School and the Public Choice School say about how government behaves."
[ ... ]
"The whole system is run from the top down, even more in the Bush administration than in others. Most policy initiatives come from the White House. For someone like me, a 3rd level political appointee in a dying department-level agency, I had no influence. I could not change anything."
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In keeping with your wish to not debate the issue but just the phenomenon, he may be right or wrong, but the significance of this is down in the noise.
/jordan