The Conservative the Right Loves to Hate (David Frum)

The Daily Beast ^ | 03/24/10 | Tunku Varadarajan

[OldDeckHand]

David Frum made headlines by branding Obamacare the Republicans’ Waterloo. Tunku Varadarajan on the rise of the ‘polite-company conservative’—and how Frum gets it all wrong..

Yesterday, I got an email from a prominent conservative academic; it was, I think, a touch harsh on the object of its attention. Here’s what it said: “Frum's pathetic, desperate whining reeks of self-loathing. At least that shows good judgment: I loathe him, too.”

The Frum in question is David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, and the “whining” that so goaded my correspondent was a blog by David, written on the day the House voted on health care, in which he described the bill’s passage as a defeat for the Republicans akin to Waterloo. He called the bill the Republicans’ “most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.” The GOP’s tactics—“No negotiations, no compromise, nothing”—led, he wrote, to a “disaster” for conservatives: “We went for all the marbles, we ended with none.”

David is a man I’ve known professionally for almost a decade, and with whom my social interaction has always been very genial. He is a good and energetic man, and has, in the years since he left service at the White House, dedicated himself to being what I call a “polite-company conservative” (or PCC), much like David Brooks and Sam Tanenhaus at the New York Times (where the precocious Ross Douthat is shaping up to be a baby version of the species). A PCC is a conservative who yearns for the goodwill of the liberal elite in the media and in the Beltway—who wishes, always, to have their ear, to be at their dinner parties, to be comforted by a sense that liberal interlocutors believe that they are not like other conservatives, with their intolerance and boorishness....

[OldDeckHand]

Frum get skewered, and the Daily Beast meets its quota of one conservative piece a month.

[jakota]

We don’t need anymore RINOs nor any Polite-Company Conservatives. Give me a band of warriors like Rush, Palin, Beck and Levin and we’ll win you a war!

[JaguarXKE]

Frum is conservative? Then I’m the next King of England.

[marstegreg]

I still believe that this is his Waterloo. He may have “won” but how is winning against the will of the American People an advantage of any kind? This is a Waterloo, just not the one they had thought.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Obamacare has only infuriated more Americans....Waterloo?...Hells Bells....

This country was not founded by people who easily gave up! If Obama thinks he’s home free now, the war is just beggining!

[jakota]

Another PCC (polite-company conservative) now includes Bill O’Reilly. A lap dog for non-commitalists.

[Seaplaner]

"David" Frum?

I thought his first name was "Arlen".

.

[NativeNewYorker]

In Obama's America, polite dissent is like bringing a water gun to a nuclear exchange.

Only folks who put wanting to be loved ahead of their childrens' future are polite opponents of the Beltway Bolsheviks.

RINOs and the polite class are fellow travelers of those who want to turn America into the Europe of the 1930s.

[Diogenesis]

Benedict Willard Romney:
”Give me what I want or I will impose more things you dont want.”

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"Frum ... (Romney supporter called Gov. Palin’s) nomination a "huge mistake" October 13 (2008)"

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Frum: "I will support (Romney) without qualm."

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Frum now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans”

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" 80 percent of Romney's former staff was absorbed by McCain
and these individuals were responsible for what amounts
to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."

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"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off
….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

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"the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
... was Nicolle Wallace's husband."

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"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

[dynachrome]

If Frum is conservative, then I am young and studly!

;)

[The_Reader_David]

As another commentator wrote of Frum’s remark: right Emperor, wrong battle.

We need to see to it that Obamacare is Obama’s Moscow: a nominal victory that leads to his ultimate defeat by its overreach.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Frum to FReepers: “ I can imagine what you must think of me”

FReepers: “But we don’t think of you”

[Tribune7]

Spot on Tunku

[blasater1960]

Frum! What the hell has happened to you? Next he’ll be writing for the HuffPo.

[achilles2000]

Polite-Company Conservatives? P$ssy Conservative would be more accurate.

[astyanax]

"...pathetic, desperate whining..."
Sums Frum (and his writing) up perfectly.

[jospehm20]

Frum is as conservative as Obama is honest.

[LADY J]

"Another PCC (polite-company conservative) now includes Bill O’Reilly. A lap dog for non-commitalists."

You are SO RIGHT!!!

It's unbearable to watch him smugly cutting off guests. He argues with them & thinks that he is showing how 'balanced' he is!!! NOT!!!

He is an arrogant, pompous Ass & I have made up my mind that when he is on - the Fox channel is going to be switched - not muted.

Maybe I'm only one person - but his ratings won't have my help.

[Islander2]

“”Another PCC (polite-company conservative) now includes Bill O’Reilly. A lap dog for non-commitalists.”

You are SO RIGHT!!!

Thanks to you both for voicing what I have been thinking for the last few years....O’Reilly is not only an arrogant elitist, but also very narcissistic.

[VAactivist]

Shocking considering the source, but this is a pretty gut wrenching piece. I don’t know what Frum can really say to it.