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Yes, he would recognize my name. He would also think of me as a flaming leftist, because I thought that the anti-apartheid movement was a good idea. And he thought very much INSIDE THE BOX and anyone who supported a civil rights issue just HAD to be a leftist in his mind. I remember a tense exchange between us in which he suggested that my support for democracy in South Africa was somehow inconsistent with being a Republican. Boy, has time passed him by on that issue. My support for South Africa was consistent with me being a Christian -- and I might note that one of the first pillars of apartheid to fall was the Dutch-Anglican church.

There were only I'd say 150 or so in each of 4 sections when I went to Harvard Law and we were stuck in the same section with the same group of 150 for a whole year. Only about 15 of us talked very regularly. I was one of 2 conservatives -- he was the other. I was not impressed by him intellectually. (I have a math degree undergrad and generally was not impressed by any lawyers intellectually -- I think a mediocre physics student beats the best of lawyers any day intellectually.)

Hmm, if he read my comments would he know who I was? LOL -- actually, the answer to that question is probably "no." Like I said, he kinda annoyed me by assuming I was a liberal just 'cause I was anti-apartheid. I really don't think he appreciated the fact that I was a conservative.

I will tell you this: David Frum suffered more publicly, and I more quietly, in our HLS classes together. It's not like I went through Harvard Law wearing a sign that said "Hi, I'm conservative." That would be asking for trouble. There were definitely classmates who frowned on people just for not being left.

E.g., I remember one rather famous class in our first year, a criminal law class taught by Professor Weinberg. He was teaching us the law of rape -- a topic in previous years he had avoided (no doubt to avoid big political debates) until the Women's Law Association complained. So there he was, teaching us the law of rape, and David Frum said something to suggest that the law should be so-and-so so that the crime of rape wasn't done differently than other crimes for prosecution purposes. (I'm vague on what the issue was -- perhaps how thoroughly one can impeach the victim.) Well, there was this lady Clair LaPorte I believe her name was who just *lashed* out at David -- she first of all led the class in laughter and then dug into him.

Now David's not sexist any more than he's racist. He was taking a reasonable position from a legal perspective. And she just *went* for his throat. He wanted to respond but Prof. Weinberg cut the conversation off. And started the next class with a reminder not to laugh at the comments of fellow students.

So, to David's credit, he was always doing things like that. I remember thinking: he said what he said anyway, knowing that the riot would ensue. So, to his credit, he was fearless and articulate and he wasn't easily silenced. Speaking out in sensitive situations and giving the conservative point of view was something he did often, even though he knew he was going to get a shrill liberal response.

So, having chided him for his over-pronunciation of consonants, I do feel compelled to say something nice. He was a perfect gentleman in debate at HLS and that's far more than you could say for the opposition. I recall many such episodes of him holding his own there.