Free Republic

(CNN) -- The Republican fratricide in the Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010. In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship -- but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well. The battle in Florida pits Gov. Charlie Crist against former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio. Both men claim to be conservative, pro-life, tax cutters. On the issues, they would seem to agree far...

Writing on his website, which used to be called “New Majority” until he got tired of people laughing at him, David Frum published an essay called “The Palin Fantasy” over the weekend. Even as the House of Representatives was preparing to pass the most blatantly unconstitutional assault on America’s freedom in Congressional history, Frum found something really outrageous to write about: Matthew Continetti’s admiring essay on Sarah Palin’s populist appeal. It’s a good thing Frum has his priorities in order. We wouldn’t want Palin to get into office and drop a few trillion dollars of unsustainable debt on us. Frum...

Andrew Sullivan directs attention to this fascinating query: All of this gets me to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Both of them have been in the news a lot for their outspoken and controversial views. And once again, people don’t seem to understand that their jobs are entertainment, nothing more… Talk show hosts have no legal or ethical obligation to do anything but entertain. And judging by their successes, Limbaugh and Beck are brilliant at their jobs. I find it mind boggling that anyone believes a TV talk host is expressing his own true views… Do you think that Limbaugh...

In his worst post yet David Frum picks up some Andrew Sullivan foam (which is pretty much what Andrew produces since he became a celebrity of the left) and takes it to the next level of nasty. “Do Limbaugh and Beck Believe What They Say?” is the title of Andrew’s thoughtless little jape. At least Sullivan deploys the question as an unabashed instrument of derision which he doesn’t himself take seriously. We’ve all asked the question, which is our way of saying no one in his right mind could believe that. It’s what every liberal thinks (when they’re not thinking)...

Politics: Democrats say Rush Limbaugh is running the Republican Party. Better Rush than George Soros, who is running the Democrats. At least Rush believes in freedom, capitalism and letting you keep what you earn. The cover of the March 7 issue of Newsweek shows a picture of conservative icon Limbaugh with a piece of tape covering his mouth and the word "Enough!" So much for disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it. Voltaire could never be a contributor to Newsweek

David Frum has a parting shot for our me in our debate. Before responding let me say that it is gratifying that we could go these three rounds without acrimony, and with a sense that we could engage these issues again down the line in a fraternal manner. That speaks to the health of the conservative coalition, and I am pleased about that. And it also pleases me that we can end on a note of agreement. Sort of. Here’s what David wrote along with my reply

Any questions?

For reasons best known to himself, David Frum has decided to suppress my side of the debate on his website. Thus my reply to his latest post (which follows below) doesn't appear on his website. I agree with you David that this dialogue is getting more focused, and I find it much more pleasurable (and hopefully informative) as a result. There are two issues here. One is a remarkable conservative outburst against the broadcaster Glenn Beck which includes you, Mark Levin and Pete Wehner among others, and which collectively wishes for his early self-destruction. The message from the three...

The debate over Glenn Beck continues at FrontPage in a discussion coordinated by my colleague Jamie Glazov. If you've enjoyed what we've had so far, then you're going to love this new installment.

So over at New Majority David Frum has a rebuttal to my post calling out his distortions on Glenn Beck. He accuses me of "not doing my homework" on Beck's positions on Paul: You’d think that review would be a matter of some urgency for David Horowitz. After all, Horowitz himself described Paul as “a crackpot, a conspiracy nut and a public menace… an anti-Semite and an America-hater.” To date, however, Horowitz has not found time to consider the record. Soon afterward, David Swindle appeared on David Horowitz’s Newsreal blog to deny that much of a record even existed. Swindle...

In the recent dialogue between David Frum and David Horowitz about the place of Glenn Beck and other bold talkers in the Conservative Movement Frum shot out a claim which threw Horowitz off guard: Third – how do we define “our side”? Horowitz harshly condemns Obama appointee Van Jones. Van Jones was eventually forced to resign not because of any of the allegations Glenn Beck hurled at him, but because the Gateway Pundit blog unearthed evidence that Van Jones had consorted with 9/11 denialists. So that’s the other side, right? Except… the American politician who most closely associates with 9/11...

David Frum has responded -- sort of -- to my Newsreal critique of his blistering attack on Glenn Beck in tones you would normally use for a Ward Churchill or a William Ayers or a Cynthia McKinney.I say "sort of" because he has not addressed the points I made and has instead misrepresented my views. I did not say that Beck's comments were false. Beck's sin so far as I can tell from David's posts are that he conflated Cass Sunstein with Peter Singer. His bad. How big a sin is this? Well it's all about context isn't it. Animal...

Conservative David Frum, having made a bad name for himself with a crusade against Rush Limbaugh in the leftwing press, has now taken out after Glenn Beck in a column titled "GOP Surrenders to Beck's Mob Rule." (Frum is an armchair aristocrat). I don't have a big quarrel with Frum's view that Beck's view of Cass Sunstein is "over the top" or off target. Conservatism is and should be a big tent where people can disagree in their judgments of issues and others. Frum is right that Sunstein is not a raving leftist. On the other hand he is not...

When Glenn Beck made his Fox debut, some shrewd conservatives responded with a wink. Maybe the show was paranoid and hysterical. Maybe Beck was none too scrupulous about facts and truth. But why be squeamish? The other side did as bad, or nearly. And see how usefully he mobilized the base! Those shrewd conservatives assumed Beck was working for them. Big mistake. Beck is working for himself – and he chooses his targets according to his own scheme of priorities. The newest target is Cass Sunstein, confirmed yesterday by the Senate as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory...

Politico conducted an interview recently with David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush and a vigorous critic of Governor Palin, about the progress of his new project, the New Majority, a website that is allegedly "dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement." In the interview, Frum effectively concedes that his New Majority project thus far has had little success in accomplishing its stated goals. "[T]he Internet is proving to be a little more complicated than Frum first thought it would be, he says. He admits to shortcomings in his Web acumen, and...

Even if the former governor of Alaska fades away before the 2012 presidential election, David Frum thinks “the Palin problem is still with us.” And as long as that’s the case, Frum — the conservative pundit and former George W. Bush speechwriter — will be here, too. “Why were conservatives vulnerable to somebody like this?” Frum mused about Palin recently in an interview with POLITICO. “The things that prevented them from seeing her are all still there. And we see them during this health care debate.” It’s been seven months since Frum parted ways with National Review to launch his...

Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the 1920s — the booming home of a glamorous new industry, a place where huge fortunes were conjured in years, sometimes months. But while the creators of the computer industry have as yet bequeathed very little to the built environment, the automobile industry piled up around it an astounding American city, in astoundingly little time. The Detroit of 1910 was a thriving Midwestern milling and shipping entrepot, a bigger Minneapolis. The Detroit of 1930 had rebuilt itself as a grand metropolis of skyscrapers, mansions, movie palaces and frame cottages spreading northward beyond the line...

Here is audio of conservative Mark Levin on radio yesterday taking pseudo-conservative David Frum apart for his cozying up to the mainstream media and his attacks on true conservatives like Gov. Sarah Palin. Frum has started a website called the "New Majority," and even wrote a book on the subject that sold "only 5,000 hard copies," according to Levin. That's why Frum is so angry at the success of Levin's book "Liberty and Tyranny," that will be considered a classic work on conservatism and the U.S. Constitution. Here is Frum's response to Levin's words on his website: "My series on...

Recently, author and columnist David Frum has engaged in a series of attacks against conservative talk show host Mark Levin. For the most part, Frum’s attacks concentrate on Levin’s style, which he asserts is “doom and gloom”. Frum’s real problem is that talk show hosts (and their listeners for that matter) are not his type of conservative; a holier than thou lot content to engage in political bargaining and the soft peddling of conservatism. That’s not to say Frum is not an intelligent guy, but he is undoubtedly drunk on the idea of his own intellectual superiority, seeing Levin’s uncompromising,...

Frum disses Palin for sharing money with Alaska taxpayers when she comes out against government "handouts" He says Palin was popular in Alaska because she gave everyone 1200 bucks. Frum: Palin failed in interview after interview. Coulter: She has tremendous star power Frum: Palin a divisive force within the republican party And within the country. And will lead the party to political defeat and ineffectiveness in government. (LOL HUH? That's what the GOP did with McCain)Coulter: Reagan was divisive too, and they said he was just appealing to the base (It worked then) Coulter: Palin a lot closer to the...

In today's Washington Post, Bill Kristol asks tauntingly "[T]he mainstream media and the Republican establishment. … tend not only to dislike and disdain Palin, they also want to bury her chances now as a presidential possibility. What are they afraid of?" That's easy to answer: They -- we! -- are afraid that Palin's distinctive combination of sex appeal, self-pity, and cultural resentment has a following in today's GOP. We are afraid that it is not utterly inconceivable that she could win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and we are afraid that if she did so she would lead the...

David Frum has done conservatives a great favor, and we should be thankful. The favor is not that he has written another negative piece about Gov. Palin. No, that's nothing new for Frum, who has been bashing the governor since she stepped up onto the national stage. Frum's gift to conservatives is that in the article, he clearly demonstrates why Vichy Republicans cannot be trusted to act in the GOP's best interests. Referencing Todd Purdum's VF hit piece which has caused such a stir, Frum itemizes Purdum's anti-Palin talking points from the VF smear job, and then he makes this...

Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny has sat atop the bestseller lists for many weeks. Clearly, conservatives across the country are finding meaning and value in this book. But what? Unlike Ann Coulter’s books, Liberty and Tyranny is not an exciting read. To his credit, Levin on the page eschews the vituperative style of his radio program. In his serious mode, he expresses himself in the sonorous style of the conservatives of the 1950s and 1960s. The tone of L&T owes a lot to the elder Brent Bozell. But Bozell coined lapidary phrases as elegantly and abundantly as the Mint strikes...

The debate over the heart and soul of conservatism continues, and the latest skirmish is apparently between neoconservative David Frum and yours truly. Frum, it seems, was offended by my recent comments about conservatism on Bloggingheads, an online talk show where bloggers debate the issues of the day. My intent was to respond to an e-mailer, who had asked me my definition of what constitutes a conservative. Interestingly, I don't think I even mentioned Frum in this particular segment, though I have certainly mentioned him in the past. For those unfamiliar with Bloggingheads, it should be noted this is essentially...

By email, Dan alerted me to, on his Riehl World View, where Mark Levin added a second guest commentary, this time focusing on "conservative" David Frum. Here's an excerpt and the link over: My interactions with Frum have been minimal, despite his past suggestions that they were something more. As best I recall, I met him first on an Amtrak train. He was sitting near the restroom feverishly working his lap top's keyboard. We exchanged pleasantries, and that was about it. I believe the next time I met him was at the Ledeen's home. He seemed harmless enough. The next...

A second guest post from Mark Levin. Update: A disclaimer of my own for the hand wringing crowd. If you read Frum's post on ML, linked below - he got very personal and very nasty. In my opinion, Mark is responding in kind, though perhaps not as nastily, or bizarrely and based on facts, not suppositions. It is precisely how I handle such things. You slap me, I slap you. Kick me, I kick you. And if you come at me with a knife, I'll shoot your ***. So spare me the Mark is mean crap. Thank you. David Frum...

This past Thursday, Mark Levin talked about the speeches of Obama and Cheney and then took a call from a lib, Cindy in Westchester. That call has backbencher Rod Dreher in a tither. First, here is Mark unedited, in full context: Rod's friend Connor was miffed so Rod, being the world's foremost authority on Mark Levin, penned a post entitled 'The disgusting Mark Levin' within which he wrote, "Good grief. Having spent about 15 unpleasant minutes [emphasis added mine] listening to this creep, I cannot imagine why anybody pays attention to him." Then Rod's other buddy, another bastion of the...

First of all, I know this column isn't going to be popular with all the mouth breathing, troglodytic, primitive dittoheads out there. But, facts are facts: conservatives are NEVER, EVER, EVER going to get back into power again. The mainstream media says so, legendary conservative icons like David Frum, Meghan McCain, and David Brooks say so -- and, yes, Democrats in Congress who we should remember soundly beat us in November, say so. So, I think it's time to point out what even completely unbiased political luminaries like Chuck Schumer and Keith Olbermann have been saying since Barack Obama was...

. . . .Obama has been in office nearly three months.. . . Obama has not yet raised taxes. He has not yet introduced a healthcare plan. He has not yet detailed a climate-change policy. He has declined to rescue the automobile companies. SNIP Yet to listen to Fox News and other conservative media, you’d think we were living in Czechoslovakia in the final hours before the 1948 communist coup. Anchors end interviews by solemnly pledging to defend liberty and oppose tyranny. The network’s rising star Glenn Beck has mused about the coming turn to totalitarianism — and warned his...

It’s not just liberals who are scared to death by Glenn Beck. Prominent conservative pundits are speaking out, denouncing his hysterics before he sinks the entire movement.

Canadian conservative David Frum is probably one of the most lucid, most reasonable and most common-sensical conservatives in North America today. I was fascinated by his book, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again. In it, he outlined a game plan for a new kind of conservatism appropriate for the 21st century. Being a fiscal hawk myself, it goes without saying that I particularly enjoyed his chapter on eliminating income tax and replacing it with consumption taxes. Frum also served as a speechwriter for ex-president George W. Bush. The slogan “axis of evil” was based on Frum’s “axis of hate”, but...

We hear a lot these days about the blunders and failings of Chairman Michael Steele. Many think that Chairman Steele has been making too many public mistakes and is simply not up to the job. In my humble opinion, they are totally and absolutely wrong. Dead wrong. Steele knows exactly what he’s doing. You see, Steele is obviously using a classic military tactic. A probing action to draw out the enemy (or in this case the opposition “us” – Movement Conservatives) for the purpose of judging their strengths/weaknesses. Steele is gutsy and bold. He aggressively thrusts forward with his “Extreme...

Conservatives who object to moderate Republican officeholders have over the years asked themselves how far they are prepared to go to rid themselves of their intraparty rivals. In the case of California’s senator Thomas Kuchel, the answer was: very far indeed. Kuchel (pronounced “kee-kul”) was among the last of the California progressives, politicians who had been decisively influenced by the middle-class, moral reform movement of the early twentieth century and leading progressive figures including Republican governors Hiram Johnson and Earl Warren. A key progressive reform, which was still in existence when Kuchel first was elected to the California State Assembly...

Do I want President Obama to fail? No. I want the country to succeed despite his agenda. That’s the same wish I had when Bill Clinton was President. I had nothing but raw contempt for his political vision, but I wanted the country to remain prosperous and free in spite of Clinton’s attempts to muck things up. Ultimately, we survived the Clinton era. Despite my general pessimism, there’s still a part of me that believes we can make it through the Obama years as well. I didn’t want Clinton to fail so much as I believed failure would inevitably consume...

Speechwriter David Frum says Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is hurting the Republican Party. Rush is new (talking) head of the GOP His controversial quips come faster than a locomotive and he leaps over spineless Republicans in a single sound bite. He's Rush Limbaugh - and he's kryptonite for the GOP, says conservative pundit David Frum. Frum, an influential former Bush speechwriter, charges in this week's Newsweek that the bombastic radio talk show host is trashing the Republican Party by allowing the Democrats to anoint him de facto party leader. "Limbaugh is kryptonite, weakening the GOP nationally," writes Frum, who...

It wasn't a fight I went looking for. On March 3, the popular radio host Mark Levin opened his show with an outburst (he always opens his show with an outburst): "There are people who have somehow claimed the conservative mantle … You don't even know who they are … They're so irrelevant … It's time to name names …! The Canadian David Frum: where did this a-hole come from? … In the foxhole with other conservatives, you know what this jerk does? He keeps shooting us in the back … Hey, Frum: you're a putz." Now, of course, Mark...

On Tuesday evening, the radio host Mark Levin opened his show with an angry shouted 10-minute monologue in which he called me (among other choice terms) a “putz,” an “a-hole,”a “frat boy,” “irrelevant,” and - ouch! - “this Canadian.”

Is there a civil war starting in the Republican Party? Frum and his crew of moderates think they have a point... Rush, Levin, Hannity, and the talk radio crowd are too abrasive and "self-indulgent" for their tastes... but then I can't recall Wills, Frum, Brooks, or any of those guys ever inspiring me to do anything. Rush inspired me to go out and start a radio show. The bottom line is that Rush wants to lay out a plan for victory... and the moderates just want to figure out how to lose with grace.

If tugging on Superman’s cape and spitting into the wind are no-nos, then messing around with Rush Limbaugh – while donning the apocryphal moniker of conservative - is sheer blockheadedness. Time and time again, counterfeit conservatism is reconstituted in the columns and commentaries of convoluted right-leaning hyper-intellectuals - David Brooks, Ross Douthat and Chris Buckley come to mind - while attempting to reinvent the movement in order to set themselves apart from the pack.All the while, conservatives such as me are derided and repudiated as being too narrow-minded, out-of-touch and parochial.Reconstructing conservatism into a more media-friendly animal, i.e. making...

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had it right the first time. Appearing on the DL Hughley show on CNN, Steele quipped that Rush Limbaugh was not the leader of the Republican party – Steele was. Then Steele used the words “ugly” and “incendiary” to describe either Limbaugh’s program or Limbaugh’s speech to CPAC.

President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party. Here’s Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party.” What a great endorsement for Rush! (And we know Rush is fond of compliments – listen to his loving account in his CPAC speech of the birthday lunch given him by President Bush just before Inauguration Day.) But what about the rest of the party? Here’s the duel that Obama...

Please stop telling us what is wrong with… well, US. Seriously, I just cannot take it any more. It’s like Yankees who come South because it’s generally such a nice place to live and then tell us we’re all a bunch of idiots and that we need to “do it like they used to do it back in Detroit.” Spare me – move back to Detroit and leave me alone. We all recognize the problems we face as a nation, and as a Party. You want a frigging medal because you, too, can read polls and recognize that we need...

...The Goldwater myth shuts down all attempts to reform and renew our conservative message for modern times. And it offers a handy justification for nominating a 2012 presidential candidate who might otherwise seem disastrously unelectable...

We here at The Conservative Comeback have been asked a lot recently, "Hey, whats up with David Frum? Every time I turn around this guy is insulting conservatives (mainly Palin). What gives?

Gallup's latest polling reveals the continuing collapse of the Republican party's base vote. The news is so very bad that there will be only one possible response from GOP party leadership and our radio talkers: Ignore it. --SNIP-- Instead, our congressmen talk to and about Rush Limbaugh like Old Bolsheviks praising Comrade Stalin at their show trials. Rush is right! We see eye to eye with Rush! There is no truth outside Rush! Rush and Hannity and O’Reilly and Ann Coulter and the others have their place and their role. They spoke for an important section of public opinion, and...

Can David Frum forge a new majority? The veteran conservative pundit and former Bush speechwriter has launched NewMajority.com, a group blog intended to heal the wounds afflicting the ailing Republican Party and conservative movement. Just as I wish President Obama the best of luck in leading this country, I wish Frum the best of luck in leading the American right out of the wilderness. Frum’s “Diary” blog at National Review Online has been a must-read for the past few years and, unfortunately, a target of much unfair criticism. Frum has been smeared by the talk-radio world for allegedly being a...

After seeing a fellow National Review columnist told off by her editor ("embarrassing and outrageous") and readers ("my mother should have aborted me ... I should 'off' myself"), neocon David Frum has decided he is taking his anti-Sarah Palin views and following Christopher Buckley out the conservative journal's door. And amid the nasty internecine feuding on the National Review's website and elsewhere, he sounds more than a bit scared of what's left of the crumbling conservative movement:

Harrison spoke about the descent of intellectual conservatism. Here’s another example of it in David Frum’s resignation from National Review. Like some other conservative intellectuals, Frum criticized the Palin pick this election. After seeing fellow National Reviewers Kathleen Parker eviscerated for the same offense, Frum followed Chris Buckley’s lead and resigned from National Review writing. In a New York Times interview, he said a little distance will help people keep their heads: I am really and truly frightened by the collapse of support for the Republican Party by the young and the educated … The answers to the Republican dilemma...

In a span of 252 days, the National Review lost two Buckleys — one to death, another to resignation — and an election. Now, thanks to the coarsening effect of the Internet on political discourse, the magazine may have lost something else: its reputation as the cradle for conservative intellectuals and home for erudite and well-mannered debate prized by its founder, the late William F. Buckley Jr. In the general conservative blogosphere and in The Corner, National Review’s popular blog, the tenor of debate — particularly as it related to the fitness of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to be...

Wow -that is some savage cutting & gutting that Nicole Wallace has just performed upon Sarah Palin. Nicole & I crossed swords once, during the Harriet Miers nomination battle. Watching what Nicole can do when she is seriously annoyed, I am grateful that I got away from that fight with nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises .... That said: Some of these stories do not ring quite true to me, especially the story about Palin allegedly not realizing that Africa was a continent rather than a country. Apparently she did not grasp that "South Africa" was not the...