Hewitt and Michael Medved became horrible neocon libs during the W Bush Administration. Glenn Beck also became a lunatic around that time.
Isn't this what they always were. I don't remember Hewitt as being different at any point in his pundit career. He's always been sort of RINOish, GOP establishment guy. He made it onto NBC as an occassional guest on Meet The Press. That's the brass ring for these types. Someone like Mark Levin - hell will freeze over before he's invited onto Meet The Press.
So, in the conservative pundit career path you choose early which branch you are one, and Hewitt was always on the "stay respectable, make it to Meet the Press" path
And as far as Beck goes:
Glenn Beck also became a lunatic around that time.
Again, Beck was always pretty much a lunatic. Watching his TV show with the blackboards was like watching a psychotic in mid-breakdown. Finally Fox just said: this is too weird, and pulled the plug. One day he would be a hard-libertarian, the next day he'd be all the over on the Left with some weirdo progressive. Beck admitted he never started reading until he was doing that show. And it showed, he didn't have a political philosophy.. he was just bouncing from one viewpoint to another as he was exposed to them.