My thoughts on this lot are that their sympathies were those of moonbats but, having attained power, they see the way things really are (bit of realpolitic), and recognise that they can't do things the way they would have liked to on campus when (in the words of Henry Kissinger) the stakes were low.
That's true - something I've often wondered about, what happens to left-wing idealists when acquire political power. I guess they either grow up, or go mad!