Win or Lose, Republicans Will Revisit the Party’s Image (Frum Still Lashing out at Limbaugh)

NYTimes ^ | http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31repubs.html | DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

[GOPGuide]

Ms. Palin has emerged as a flash point for a split dividing talk-radio populists and conservative traditionalists from some of their former intellectual allies at National Review and the Heritage Foundation.

“These are the people who are embarrassed by Sarah Palin,” Rush Limbaugh recently declared on his radio program, pointedly criticizing several columnists by name, “ ’cause she’s not an intellectual and she didn’t go to Harvard or have a college degree from approved universities and she drops her g’s from words like ‘morning’ and says ‘mornin’.”

One of the columnists, David Frum, fired back on National Review’s Web site. “Can even Rush himself believe this junk?” Mr. Frum said.

Those who think like Mr. Limbaugh, he said, “are offering flattering illusions when we need truth.” He added, “They are leading us to disaster — and beyond disaster, to irrelevance.”

[ansel12]

“One of the columnists, David Frum, fired back on National Review’s Web site. “Can even Rush himself believe this junk?” Mr. Frum said. “

---

I’ll say it first, “you betcha”.

Conservatives are going to start kicking some vichy tail.

[PhiKapMom]

Someone needs to tell FRUM to stuff it! We do not need the advice of a weasel on how to run the GOP.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I couldn’t get through the whole thing. It appears that what Frum is saying is that if the GOP wants to survive, we must act like DemocRATS?

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

“They are leading us to disaster — and beyond disaster, to irrelevance.”

Unfortunately, many who've called themselves conservative have found their way to irrelevance all on their own.

[GOPGuide]

Exactly!

[bereanway]

He added, “They are leading us to disaster — and beyond disaster, to irrelevance.”

******

DRAMA QUEEN

[beagleone]

I thought you meant “frum” Jews, i.e. religious orthodox Jews. They love Rush Limbaugh.

[pissant]

Calling Frum a conservative traditionalist is like calling Nancy Pelosi a Scoop Jackson democrat.

[freespirited]

Frum needs a sabbatical far from the Beltway. It’s really sad to see the number that living in the DC environs too long has done to him.

[St. Louis Conservative]

Screw Frum! This is one of the architects of “compassionate conservatism”, which was an abject disaster for the GOP. We completely lost our identity under the influence of Frum and his ilk.

[af_vet_rr]

I couldn’t get through the whole thing. It appears that what Frum is saying is that if the GOP wants to survive, we must act like DemocRATS?

It wouldn't surprise me - I've run into a lot of Republicans, both here and elsewhere, who think that the party needs to become a lot more moderate (leftist in my book) and embrace the George Bush and John McCain type of Republicans and stay away from the Duncan Hunter type of Republicans.

A lot of us are rethinking our participation in the GOP if it continues down the path it's headed.

[nyc1]

“Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, one of a handful of state executives who conservatives hope could help lead their party out of its doldrums, said President Bush had failed in his effort to rebrand the party and to expand its base. Mr. Sanford is among those counseling the party to return to conservative basics rather than risk undermining its ideological identity by trying to imitate Democrats.

“That is what ‘compassionate conservatism’ was about,” Mr. Sanford said. “It was a disaster.””

Bush did some good things, but overall I think Sanford hits the nail on the head here.

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

"It appears that what Frum is saying is that if the GOP wants to survive, we must act like DemocRATS?"

Unlike Rush, Frum's idea of relevance is getting quoted in a positive light by the NYT.

If that's relevance to him let him join the gang that likes to pretend standing for nothing, if done by enough people, magically adds up to standing for something.

[Friendofgeorge]

David Frum is a pro abortion,pro gay liberal.

[webschooner]

Hey Herr Frum, or whatever your friggin name is — how many people read your stoopid columns?

And how many folks listen to Rush’s radio program (22 million)

Any questions, Frum Dum??

[Lurker]

Dear Mr. Frum,

When the NYT starts calling you to get your opinion on conservative political thought, it's time to hang it up.

L

[Hawk1976]

The Republican party sold out it’s base after the 2004 election. If the party isn’t going to support conservative values, then it does not deserve conservative votes.

[exist]

I was annoyed at Limbaugh during that whole Dubai ports deal-- so I get it. People disagree. We're a big party. It happens.

But Frum, Noonan, Brooks, and Kathleen Parker haven't just disagreed, they've trashed us. They've trashed Sarah Palin, who many of us have a great affinity for, in the most immature, childish way. Calling her names...portraying her as an idiot...

And for what? So they can get press? So they can get invited on MSNBC? So their kids can watch them on Colbert Report?

Here's a new David Brooks interview where he portrays himself as a victim of a non-thinking conservative mob.

But he doesn't seem to realize that referring to Sarah Palin as 'a fatal cancer'-- that's not exactly being Socrates is it?

[RichInOC]

Speaking of flattering illusions, David...I hate to break it to you and your colleagues, but you’re not the bosses of the conservative movement. I’m not sure there actually is such a thing right now. Mr. Buckley (that’d be Christopher’s father, not Christopher) could probably have laid a convincing claim to that title, but Mr. Buckley is no longer here, is he, old boy?