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The Spectacle Blog
This business of conservatives going after more noted conservatives is something I confess I just don’t understand.
Unless I do.
David Frum is after Mark Levin — again — and our friends at National Review. All who once upon a time were his friends and colleagues. Does this sound familiar?
For a succinct summation of Mr. Frum, the must-read is Bob Tyrrell’s “Odious Conservatives.”
In the last few days, we’ve caught up with the latest Frumerie.
A reader sent me a link to a piece in that fine not-conservative publication Harper’s (!!) which goes on at great approving length citing the wisdom of Mr. Frum. And what brought Harper’s accolades to Mr. Frum? You know the answer without even knowing the details. Frum is winning these latest plaudits from yet another liberal quarter because, but of course, he’s out there whacking some conservative somewhere. In this case, Frum is trashing — in order so we can keep track this time — 1) Mark Levin, 2) National Review,3) Rush Limbaugh, 4) Fox News.
Sean Hannity escaped this round. Not to worry, I’m sure Mr. Hannity will reappear in Frum’s fire zone. Mr. Frum needs to eat. To smear is to eat.
What Bob Tyrrell has unerringly picked up is a pattern. To quote him directly:
A major proposition that I advance in a book that will be published later this month, After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery, is that there exists an odious subgroup of conservatives who since the beginning of the conservative movement have made their way to prominence in the mainstream media by a cheap act. They disparage with great melodrama other conservatives.
The book is now out, and as if to help Mr. Tyrrell prove his point, right on cue Frum stands up to attack Levin, NR, Rush and Fox. The only thing that changes with Frum is the venue (the television shows of Bill Moyers and Bill Maher, the cover of Newsweek, etc). Frum knows in advance that by doing what Tyrrell pins exactly as a “cheap act” the chances are someone out there in liberal land will buy the act. This time, the buyer was Harper’s.
What is striking here is the personal bitterness that seeps out. Frum is smart, you see. Just ask him. The foam practically drips off the page as he digs at “the One Correct Way of Mark Levin Thought.” Or tosses similar bitter sentiments at the NR crew.
Next the target was Rush Limbaugh. Again.
“Rush Limbaugh isn’t any worse than he was 20 years ago,” Frum quotes a friend approvingly. If memory serves, Mr. Limbaugh was the subject of a great article — a cover article at that — at National Review when William F. Buckley was still very much in charge. Where was Mr. Frum if he disapproved? Was there a hot letter of disapproval to WFB? A cover article at Newsweek taking Mr. Buckley to task?
The short answer is: are you kidding?
Mr. Frum’s problems give the appearance of being motivated at frustration he is somehow not getting the due he feels his smarts deserve, whatever smarts those might be. His books don’t sell like Mark Levin’s — or Sean Hannity’s new Conservative Victory, now atop the NYT bestseller list after barely a couple weeks on sale. Frum is not even close to Levin in book sales in the ratio of minnow to whale, thousands to over a million. He doesn’t have Levin or Hannity’s or Rush’s influence as popular radio/TV talk show hosts. And so? Like Jimmy Carter fuming that he lost to Reagan, whom Carter then and now considered a lesser being, resentment builds. It is no accident that he has now, in one venue or another, smeared Rush, Levin and Hannity . For good measure, he now hates Glenn Beck too.
Does it really need to be said that what Rush, Mark, Sean and Beck have exactly in common besides philosophy is the clear sense of their audience that they are not being condescended to? This is communication skill 101 — and for whatever reason Mr. Frum doesn’t seem to get it much less have it. They are — and this is what really gets to Mr. Frum — communicating a conservative message intelligently and effectively. Something Frum insists he knows how to do better than they —- he just somehow can’t deliver. Why? Quite aside from the fact they have a better grasp of conservatism then Frum does, they respect their audience. And their audience respects them in return. No one that I know in everyday life out here beyond the Beltway cares that Frum thinks he’s a smart guy. They simply don’t care. They have no idea who Frum is, which is not unsurprising. The Frum message has ranged on the surface from Reagan failed to Limbaugh is an idiot to a website salute to…no kidding…Thomas E. Dewey.
The real message received is that David Frum condescends in the same fashion as all the liberals who celebrate him when he turns on his friends and the philosophy he insists he supports. When that message fails to sell, Frum resorts to frenzied attacks on Levin. Or National Review. Or Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Fox News. Let’s not leave out the martyrdom pose from his AEI squabble with Arthur Brooks. And so on. And on.
Who knows where the fickle finger of Frum will next point?
Increasingly it must be said: who cares?
View all comments (89) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/04/28/david-frum-there-he-goes-again
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Ken (Old Texican)| 4.28.10 @ 5:09PM
Mr. Lord,
You nailed it: who cares?
Frum is a poodle, hopping on his rear legs hoping for a treat from his leftie friends.
Dr. No| 4.29.10 @ 6:09PM
This is an insult to poodles, who are quite loyal to one another.
Warrior | 4.28.10 @ 5:12PM
Frum is the literary Ashley Dupre.
MOS was 71331| 4.28.10 @ 10:38PM
I didn't recognize the name, so I looked it up:
"Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro (born Ashley Youmans; April 30, 1985) better known by the stage name Ashley Alexandra Dupré, is an American sex columnist for the New York Post and singer. Dupré become a public figure when it was disclosed that she was the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. In that capacity, she was known as Kristen, the name she used as a call girl."
Eric Cartman| 4.29.10 @ 9:26AM
Or, "The Fruminator! He's Supersmart - just ask him!" From the good folks at Hasbeen, creator of The McClellanator and super action figure, The Colinator.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.28.10 @ 5:13PM
AWWWWW! I am mimicking Alan with double posts. Sorry.
I just wonder how many folks hear and read, you, and Rush, and Levin et al on a daily basis.
You guys do a pretty good job shredding the emperor's new clothes on a daily basis.
Thank you to all of you.
BD57| 4.28.10 @ 5:14PM
Frum has indeed entered that region of political discussion where the act is old, the tantrum staged, the message trite.
In other words, Frum has pulled a "Sullivan."
zombyboy | 4.29.10 @ 2:14PM
Maybe a "half Sullivan?" I don't think he's gone "full Sullivan" as of yet--in fact, there are a lot of areas where we'll still find common cause with Frum.
Sullivan, by comparison, went completely off his nut some time ago and finding common cause would be tricky. And let's be honest, I haven't yet notice Frum entering the "strange obsession with Palin's uterus" stage of political insanity.
John - TMF| 4.28.10 @ 5:18PM
Maybe he'll write speeches for the queen of smarm... Charlie Crist...
They can all live in Lefty brown-nose heaven... with Arlen, Linc, and Lowell... You can hear Peggy warming up the background vocals..
[shivers... ]
TMF
Margie| 4.28.10 @ 5:33PM
I think Mr. Frum needs to get a new "temperament", to quote Mr, Tyrrell's recent article. A conservative one.
It's missing. If he truly had a conservative temperament, he wouldn't be in this predicament!
Jeff Perren | 4.28.10 @ 5:56PM
The suggestion is that David Frum is really just a huckster, looking for a buck he couldn't earn other ways. Perhaps, I don't know him well.
But, it's at least worth considering that he - like David Brooks - is really nothing more nor less than what he appears: a Progressive with a conservative pastiche. People do, after all, come to believe a philosophy that drives their values and choices. The Pragmatism of the sort oozing out of Brooks, Frum, and others is a great facilitator of that. It makes it easy to embrace the opposite of what you once believed and never feel you've contradicted yourself at all.
Howard| 4.28.10 @ 9:27PM
I agree with you. I also look at Frum, Gergen, and Brooks as "light-skinned" conservatives who are welcome into the liberal "massas" house. They have good manners and will not embarrass the plantation owner.
Blair| 4.29.10 @ 10:56AM
@John and Howard...excellent! Couldnt have said it better
Janie| 4.28.10 @ 6:02PM
Frum is a scuzzy 'Maverick' like another Lame Stream Media favorite, John McLame; RINOs don't have any integrity.
CC| 4.28.10 @ 6:21PM
That is one thing the Dems have.... Regardless of how unsavory one of them acts, they do not attack them like the Repubs do their own; stick together like super glue!!!! I have to give them that... BUT no other credit....
The Truth| 4.28.10 @ 6:33PM
Frum is a turd-poker Lib, pure and simple.....
Winston | 4.28.10 @ 7:09PM
It is time to revoke Frum's citizenship and send him back to Canuckistan where he rightly belongs.
Joe Sixpack| 4.28.10 @ 7:36PM
In fairness, Hannity is a very stupid self promoter.
Hannity needs to be reminded to breathe, for crying out loud. He (and Beck) do not have the heft to be associated with NR and Limbaugh.
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 4.28.10 @ 7:54PM
Joe Sixpack, you're right about Hannity, but Hannity is not a conservative. He's a Newt Gingrich wannabe which also makes him a RINO. Hannity is, like Michael Medved, Bill Bennett, & Mike Gallagher, all for re-electing the same RINO Republican failures (McCain, Gingrich, Hatch, Graham, etc.) over & over & over again. All he cares about is that "R" next to their name. The fact they've been failures in Congress doesn't matter to him. Hannity means well I believe, but he can't get over his man-crush on RINOs like Gungrich.
Howard| 4.28.10 @ 9:29PM
Hannity is a true conservative, not a RINO. He is a self-promoter, but, hey, we are capitalists (I hope).
Howard| 4.28.10 @ 9:29PM
Hannity is a true conservative, not a RINO. He is a self-promoter, but, hey, we are capitalists (I hope).
BD57| 4.28.10 @ 9:57PM
If Bill Bennett is a "RINO", then is no such thing as a conservative.
zombyboy | 4.29.10 @ 2:17PM
Agreed. Although I would also note that, for all his flaws and missteps, Gingrich has done a lot for conservatives and Republicans. While I’m not opposed to having some standards to qualify for conservative club membership, the RINO witch hunt is casting an awfully wide net.
Smitty| 4.28.10 @ 9:00PM
Hannity and Beck are assets to Conservatism and only someone 'very stupid' would say otherwise.
Margie| 4.28.10 @ 9:25PM
Right on, Smitty!
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 4.28.10 @ 7:43PM
Mr. Lord, don't waste your time on Mr. Frump. He learned the same thing Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, Michael Smerconish, David Brooks, & several other so-called "conservative" pundits learned during election season in 2008. You can win over the state-run media & get on tv by bashing serious conservatives, be they politicians or other pundits. Like Michael Smerconish, Mr. Frump has been relegated to being a "token conservative voice of reason" on networks like MSLSD & CNN while his former conservative followers have long since departed. Like Smerconish & the others I mentioned, Frump has an awful lot to say, but no one left to listen. Enjoy your "hoax & chains" in the wilderness of the state-run media Mr. Frump. You no longer speak for me.
"Life is hard, it's harder when you're stupid!" - John Wayne
marcia| 4.28.10 @ 7:58PM
This is one of the most mean-spirited articles I have ever read. You achieve the opposite of your goal: you end up attributing traits to another person that seem to better describe yourself, based on this piece alone.
Smitty| 4.28.10 @ 8:55PM
Nothing mean-spirited about Frum's vicious attacks against conservatives--oh no, not at all.
Frum deserves a good smackdown; I'm sick of the fat-faced little traitor. Who needs enemies when you've got a 'friend' like Frum?
Jeffrey Lord| 4.28.10 @ 9:54PM
Marcia....
Please read the Newsweek piece on Rush Limbaugh by Mr. Frum. Then we can have a conversation about "mean-spirited." And trust me, there's more where that came from.
Ralph Novy| 4.29.10 @ 1:35PM
I agree with you, Marcia. Some call it "projection"; some call it "the pot calling the kettle black." At any rate, this is nothing more than a superficial "hit piece" that harps on Frum's alleged motives and calls him names. It doesn't even TRY to address the substance of ANY of Frum's criticisms. Intellectually worthless.
Ralph Novy| 4.29.10 @ 1:35PM
I agree with you, Marcia. Some call it "projection"; some call it "the pot calling the kettle black." At any rate, this is nothing more than a superficial "hit piece" that harps on Frum's alleged motives and calls him names. It doesn't even TRY to address the substance of ANY of Frum's criticisms. Intellectually worthless.
Brian72| 4.29.10 @ 5:03PM
Frum is "intellectually worthless".
He says he is a conservative while attacking every popular figure in the conservative movement.
He advocates the American Republican Party has a lot to learn from Canada and the UK.
I say it's the other way around.
SoCon| 4.29.10 @ 5:15PM
Agreed!
Smitty| 4.29.10 @ 5:17PM
Novy is worthless; who cares about the mindless mutterings of a troll?
mike musculus| 5.26.10 @ 3:23PM
Hey, Marcia, Ralf!(sic) I've noticed that the "mean-spirited" comment is simply Lib-Progressive coding for "accurate, truthful, tasteful, appropriate, and damaging to the facade of mis-direction"...
Remember: every statement adds to the evidence that eventually lays bare the intent of the heart.
HammerTime| 4.28.10 @ 8:35PM
So, Frum writes books no one reads, gets articles published in lefty mags that are loosing influence as fast as they are readers and goes on cable "News" shows with low ratings...have I got that about right?
WHO CARES?!
Not me...
NEXT!
Michael| 4.28.10 @ 8:49PM
"personal bitterness that seeps out" Are you talking about Levin or Frum? Don't know much about Frum, but it's a spot-on description of Levin.
Jeffrey Lord| 4.28.10 @ 9:51PM
Michael...
Actually, I know Mark Levin. Respectfully, you are wrong, big time. I'm hard pressed to understand how you could possibly know something as wide of the mark, so to speak, as this. You should read Mr. Frum. Then you'll get it.
Michael| 4.28.10 @ 10:26PM
Jeff, I listen to Mark every evening in the car on the way home. Sorry, but my take on his shrill comportment is someone who is bitter about, well, just about everything. Oddly, tonight, he gave a rather touching tribute to his dad (which ended up as a pitch for his dad's book), but just when I was on the precipice of actually expanding my opinion of Mark, he referred to the dissenting Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, as an "idiot" and "moron" - a law enforcement professional, and career public servant - incredibly disrespectful. You may not call it bitterness, but I do - and I believe it derives from a profound disappointment that everything does not go his way.
Jeffrey Lord| 4.28.10 @ 11:39PM
Michael...
To be a successful talk radio host is to be a very good communicator. If Mark Levin talked like an NPR host...which I assure you he can do....he would be in need of government funding to stay on the air, as does NPR. You must hold the audience's attention, communicate complex ideas - and yes do so in an entertaining fashion while doing this. The reason Mark is so successful at this...and remember he's #4, right behind Rush, Sean and Beck...(and all three of those have spent a professional lifetime at this, Mark is a relative latecomer from government and the law) is that he has mastered each of these essentials. Like all people who have a considerable skill, he makes it look easy. But if it were that easy, someone else would be number 4. Respectfully, I suggest you listen harder the next time. Understand the different elements he has mastered to make people stay tuned. He and the others give good radio. If they don't - they're off the air. The free market at work. And if you want to learn more about Mark, read the book Rescuing Sprite.
http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing.....amp;sr=1-4
michael| 4.29.10 @ 6:54PM
So in other words, it's an act and he's pandering to the LCD? That's sad! In the end I guess it is all about ratings, market share, and advertising revenue. Look, I'm in the communication business and I recognize that we're at an unfortunate nexus where style and form trump content. And yes, packaging does matter, I get that. But for me, Mark's style seems more suited to a cigar chomping washer machine salesman at an appliance warehouse than a sincere, thoughtful purveyor of ideological rhetoric. I do listen hard, but complex ideas? The currency of his shtick seems to be a somewhat simplistic polarizing tactic - either your right or you're wrong, nothing complex about that. But, yes he does have "skills". His segues into pitches for gold are indeed masterful.
plastic mold | 4.28.10 @ 10:11PM
may be you are right.
George Welsh| 4.28.10 @ 10:55PM
I encourage people to read the link Jeffrey Lord's post. Mr. Lord greatly misrepresents Frum's argument. Mr. Frum was talking about a very specific incident, i.e. the reaction to Jim Manzi's criticism of Mark Levin. Mr. Frum did not express hatred of Levin, Limbaugh or National Review. This foaming at the mouth post by Lord contributes nothing to the discussion. I think conservatives should be able to live comfortably with David Frum and Rush Limbaugh, but overreactions like this post make that all but impossible.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 9:39AM
Sure, George---because this article is all David Frum has said and written attacking conservatives.
Why don't you look up Frum's last appearance on Levin's radio show?
Ralph Novy| 4.29.10 @ 1:40PM
Hear, hear.
REMEMBER NOVEMBER!| 4.29.10 @ 5:11PM
Teflon was being sarcastic, nitwit.
George Welsh| 4.28.10 @ 11:11PM
I encourage people to read the link in Jeffrey Lord's post. Mr. Lord greatly misrepresents Frum's argument. Mr. Frum was talking about a very specific incident, i.e. the reaction to Jim Manzi's criticism of Mark Levin. Mr. Frum did not express hatred of Levin, Limbaugh or National Review. This foaming at the mouth post by Lord contributes nothing to the discussion. I think conservatives should be able to live comfortably with David Frum and Rush Limbaugh, but overreactions like this post make that all but impossible.
Brian72| 4.29.10 @ 5:08PM
Frum's "argument", if you look at the body of work the last few years, is RINO incarnate. Go green. Favor entitlements, just run them slightly more efficiently than the libs. He basically wants to forget the Reagan Revolution and become American Tories. No thanks, Frum. I'll stick with Mark Levin and American Conservatism as defined by Reagan.
His "analysis" of conservatives he disapproves of consists of the most petty personal attacks. He deserves all he gets, and more.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 7:01PM
Boy, Frum's strategy worked really well in 2006 and 2008, didn't it?
I mean, we wouldn't have those strong Congressional GOP majorities and the White House without him.
Hey, waitaminute...
Mike Musculus| 5.29.10 @ 2:46PM
I agree, excepting:
American Conservatism as defined by the Founding Fathers: (yes I know it was Liberalism then: the maximizing of Personal Liberty...)
While agree w/almost all of Reagan, he made a some expensive mistakes, a few which have brought us to the current pass, with Cockroaches in the Oval Office.
(opps! I wonder if the "Spy Scouts" read these comments -- hopefully that is only a flashback to my youth...). I have the same feelings about Levin's stated positions on a few things, and I'm of 2 minds about the "new party" argument Levin castigates. I can see the attempt, if whole-hearted, to take back the GOP, but the GOP of today equals the Whigs of then... right down to the "wink & nod" of Slavery - except *this* Slavery is of the Citizenry generally.
If you think that statement is hyperbole, note that taxation-economic Slavery, while the Chains of Slavery may not rust or clank, they are just as binding as any iron bonds fordged by man.
They want us so busy eking out a marginal existance that we have no time to throw off the yoke!
Nothing is more expensive than that which is "free": Free Speech costs Blood, Free Money costs freedom.
tj| 4.29.10 @ 6:22AM
Off Topic!!! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,591683,00.html
Congress Votes on Statehood for Puerto Rico today...this will change our country as we know it. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!
TennesseeVolunteer| 4.29.10 @ 7:56AM
Jeff, Frum only has this stage because the Left wants to try to take us down. Since the only people that read or listen to Frum are the few thousands left that subscribe to those outlets, we are giving Frum way too much attention.
However, your point that is made is that we have a group of "progressive supposed Conservatives" who are trying to impress Big Government and big Liberals that they are the smart people in the room. On Nov. 2, 2010, they are going to find out how lonely they are.
Nov.2, 2010....Our independence Day!
les grossman| 4.29.10 @ 9:18AM
The guy has issues, this much is clear. He feels unappreciated by conservatives generally and by his former colleagues in particular. He must have been a joy to work with.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 9:36AM
The more troubling phenomenon is that National Review under Rich Lowry's leadership is becoming quite the FauxCon farm team---Rod Dreher, David Brooks, Ross Douthat, etc.
The Weekly Standard has always had more than their share---few more odious than David Brooks---and even the good ol' Amspec has had its David Brocks.
But NR is truly losing its way, with even Ramesh Ponnuru wandering far afield.
There needs to be a new codicile to the great NR editor John O'Sullivan's Law: any insitution which is not helmed by a reliable conservative will become liberal over time.
Leadership matters.
Becky| 4.29.10 @ 9:44AM
Yes, leadership and being vigilante. I think it was Robert Coquest's three laws of politics that you are referring to, something like the first being everyone is a conservative about what they know best, the second that any organization not explicitly right will become left, and that you can assume any ogranization is run by a cabal of its enemies.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 11:01AM
Love Conquest but this is what I was referring to, Becky:
"O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing."
http://old.nationalreview.com/.....062603.asp
He mentions Conquest too, so your connection is a good one.
In a judiciary context, I call it the Progressive Ratchet---judicial activists reject precedent and use liberal ends as their guide to ruling; judicial conservatives are supposed to accept and uphold the new precedents established by judicial activists, thus ratcheting up liberalism over time.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 9:42AM
Frum, Noonan, Dreher, Brooks, Douthat, Friedersdorf, Parker et al are nothing more than the Left Wing Media's useful idiots.
Even Kathleen Parker knows full well she never would have won a Pulitzer were she not this year's Judas on behalf of her new masters.
Keep in mind what happened when the GOP made the mistake of listening to the likes of David Frum. We chose a RINO the media supposedly loved to carry our banner in the last election.
How'd that work out?
Mimi| 4.29.10 @ 11:31AM
For a long time now I wondered why the MSM kinda laid off Mark Levin......I alway's fiquered... 'they wouldn't dare"...... Now it seems it's cliff time for the Dem's and there pushing back and aiming for the jugular!!! We'll we've got news for them! They LOST the american people with all their dumb ideas. They are desparate so they search out The Frum's of this world to carry their water. We'll flick this off and go on our way, snickering with thumbs up thinking " God must love this land to give us such Brilliant Levin's, Funny, entertaining and truthful Beck's, Patriotic,passionate Hannity's, and the one on loan from God Rush's At a TIME in our history our country is in such internal PERIL!!!!!
Dixie Pixie| 4.29.10 @ 11:40AM
As P.J. O'Rourke has found out the Liberal Media controls 90% of the media market, pays better, has wilder party's, indulges looser woman and does not require a rigorous adherence to the laws of the USA.
Is it really a surprise David Frum is being seduced by the Dark Side.
richard| 4.29.10 @ 12:03PM
Instead of crying about what he's doing or how he's going about it, I wish the article would address whether he's got a point. What I see is that many conservatives don't have many relevant ideas. Where were there ideas for addressing health care? I'm not aware that Rush, Glenn or Sean have ideas about policy, they just complain all the time. Even the ideas on health care put forth in this magazine weren't really touted by any Republican that I can think of. Why?
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 12:13PM
You mean like this?:
http://www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 12:15PM
Even Limbaugh's critics acknowledge he's forwarded ideas for health reform:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/st...../19110871/
richard| 4.29.10 @ 12:42PM
I read the article and it doesn't speak favorably to Rush- read the end. I've heard him myself say we have the best health care system in the world and should just leave it alone. The fact that he's offering an idea of catastrophic coverage just means that he's come around to see that change is necessary.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 1:42PM
Richard---I noted above that this was from Limbaugh's critics.
The point is he has forwarded ideas for this debate---you're not giving conservatives any credit for this.
Eliminating 3rd payer is another idea Limbaugh has championed. Indeed, that's how he pays for his own healthcare.
richard| 4.29.10 @ 1:06PM
I find it interesting that even Rush uses a "government program" to address a problem. You do the math.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 2:23PM
Rush's point is that the ostensible problem could be solved through much less expensive and intrusive means.
But perhaps the hiring of 16,000 new IRS agents to send people to jail for the crime of not purchasing what they don't need under Obamacare bothers a true conservative such as yourself not at all.
richard| 4.29.10 @ 5:30PM
I've sworn off Rush. He has been a polarizing force in our country and pulled conservatives so far to the right that there are no more Bob Dole's in the party--people who can actually maintain principle and work with the other side. I can't stand to listen to the other major party being compared to Nazi's or his poking fun at them with adolescent nicknames.
And as far as IRS agents goes, I don't know that people would actually get thrown in jail, I have not heard that to be true. Th e idea is that they need to purchase health insurance because that's the only way people with pre-existing conditions can get covered. Otherwise too many healthy people just drop coverage until they get sick. This, by the way, was one of those ideas Senate Republicans had back in 1994 that they now regard as gross overreach by the federal government. My how things change.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 6:59PM
Yes, too bad we don't have Bob Dole.
How much did he lose by again?
Isn't it funny how that swing vote never swings the GOP way whenever we run one of those squishy moderates the media loves?
richard| 4.29.10 @ 12:40PM
And all this for $0? Right. We know who ran Congress from 1995-2007 and they didn't put forth any ideas for serious reform. When I called my senator (Cornyn) in September '09, and asked what his ideas were. I was told nothing. I asked doesn't he support a proposal? I was told: Senate Republicans will be meeting later this fall to come up with their proposals. This is why those Democrats passed HCR, they owned the issue. The Senate bill that passed and was ratified by the House has many similarities with the legelative proposals that Senate Republican made in 1994 as an alternative proposal to Clinton-care. ...including the mandates.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 1:43PM
You're forgetting that Pelosi, Reid et al specifically ran on a "no idea" platform in 2006. It was all anti-Bush. They scoffed at the need to put forth their own plans for reform---do you recall when they shot down Social Security and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reform?
richard| 4.29.10 @ 5:21PM
Yeah, they scoffed at the idea of putting together specific plans for something they knew bush would veto. they were biding their time until they had a fellow Dem in the Oval Office.
Yes, I do recall when they and BF shot down FM and FM reform. SS reform was a joke. Bush went out and staffed his "town halls" with like-minded people. It was pretty lame. I lament that we can't have a better discussion of these big issues. They truly need a more realistic discussion.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 7:00PM
So let me get this straight:
Democrats don't need to offer any ideas to get elected, but Republicans do---even when Obama forces socialism down the throats of the 2/3 of Americans opposed to it.
Right.
Derek Leaberry| 4.29.10 @ 12:36PM
With all due respect for the host of this site, it was Bob Tyrrell who launched David Frum's turbulent career by publishing Frum's screed against Pat Buchanan in the early 1990s.
Teflon93| 4.29.10 @ 1:59PM
And most famously David Brock.
Smitty| 4.29.10 @ 5:14PM
You're blaming the stupidity of Frum and Brock on RET? That's a stretch, wouldn't you say?
Tim| 4.29.10 @ 2:53PM
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The FRUMIOUS Bandersnatch!"
The David Frumious Bandersnatch that is. Thank you Lewis Carroll.
Pingback| 4.29.10 @ 4:34PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : David Frum: There He Go links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
stmichrick| 4.29.10 @ 9:59PM
The first time I ever heard of David Frum was a occasional segment that NPR ran featuring him as a token conservative or 'Republican Kevin Phillips'...you remember, after Newt and the incoming Republican Congress were floating the notion of cutting off taxpayer money for public broadcasting. We know how that turned out.
Fact is, the man has always thrived on being thought of as 'thoughtful' and 'reasoned' by liberal media. Nothing new here.
Drew| 4.29.10 @ 11:32PM
If Frum spent half the time and energy on attacking the Dems who present ripe targets every day instead of nattering away at conservatives, he might have some credibility as a conservative worth listening to.
It seems bizarre strategy to keep suggesting compromises with the Dems when they are the farthest left they've ever been. Like minded RINO's like McCain have been running the Republican show and look where that's gotten us. Prescribing more of the same is insanity.
Frum's mother was a well known lefty in Canadian circles and perhaps the acorn is returning to the tree.
stmichrick| 4.30.10 @ 3:43PM
To be engaged by the likes of Maher, Moyers, Newsweek and Harpers is catnip for this guy.
Missy| 4.30.10 @ 2:00PM
Said the sniper.
Eileen S| 5.3.10 @ 9:20AM
This kind of authoritarian insistance upon marching in lock-step with loudmouths like Rush Limbaugh is what drove me and other well-educated voters I know from the GOP even before the Tea Baggers were on the scene.
My parents were life-long Republicans and until the party lost its mind (am I the only one who remembers that Richard Nixon, not a Democrat, was the first president to sign major environmental legislation?), so was I.
Every month it seems American conservatism insists on going further 'round the bend and Frum is one of the few with the courage to stand up and tell it like it is. Faddish extremism may shake up elections but it bodes ill for the future of the country and perhaps the GOP itself. I want no part of it.
Sir Napsalot| 11.4.10 @ 5:16PM
From the article
>>>Frum is not even close to Levin in book sales in the ratio of minnow to whale, thousands to over a million.
See that proved his smarts. Those who bought his books are the true geniuses.
/heavy s
And yes, continue to mock us as extreme rightwing radicals, you have seen nothing yet.