It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. More so, it seems, if you’re a finance executive at a conservative think tank based firmly on the principles of ‘free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom … and a strong national defense’.

Sadly, it’s a lesson that hasn’t quite been drilled into the vast majority of those Americans not a part of the Heritage Foundation. 105-pound communications assistant at the Academy for Educational Development Kristin Hall was put in her place in the Darwinian struggle of the free market when retired Navy lieutenant and Heritage’s current vice president for finance and operations Ted Schelenski shoved Hall while she was still on her bike at a busy Washington DC intersection.

The bicyclist, Kristin Hall, 23, said the trouble began about 8:30 a.m. June 14. She was riding on the sidewalk, about to turn onto the 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue NE, when a car stopped in front of her, blocking her path, she said. She stopped her bike and asked the man to move his silver Acura, she said.

But Schelenski wouldn't move, and the two yelled at one another, she said in an interview yesterday.

“When he got out of the car, I told him: ‘You're crazy! Get back in the car!’” [Hall said].

But Schelenski came at [Hall] and shoved her to the ground while she was still straddled on her bicycle, she said.

“I was pretty scraped up and bruised,” Hall said. “And he just got back into his car and floored it. He took off.”

I guess this isn’t the compassionate part of compassionate conservatism. I wonder if Heritage scales its pay to general ruthlessness. But hey – to his credit (and perhaps to the detriment of his paycheck), Schelenski later tried to apologize. He’ll have to save it for the judge – he’ll be in court July 27th for a status hearing.