That paragraph explains why CBS would run an article from a usually reliable conservative.
I have to disagree with the premise (that Ben Stein is a reliable conservative)if not with your conclusion. He's always been wary of supply side "ideology" and I suspect much of that wariness boils down to Stein's zero-sum vision of the world, shared by the likes of James Webb and John Edwards, rather than his own considerable economic knowledge.
He's also very eloquent, and that along with the fact that he (Stein) is not a "reliable conservative" is why CBS features him as regular contributer alongside Nancy Giles on "Sunday Morning". One hundred and eighty degrees from solidly conservative, Stein is in fact a mushy moderate who (for example) sees the military primarily as an economically victimized special interest group rather than as heroes who have volunteered; conversely, he sees the rich in America, including himself, as parasites who "don't deserve" the Bush tax cuts. Ben Stein is a conservative on some issues (if a self-loathing one), no doubt--- far from a reliable one.