Free Republic

It's shaping up to be a busy week for David Frum, what with manning the speculum for Andrew Sullivan (OB-Atlantic), picking irrational fights with David Horowitz, and hourly dry humping of his blog visitor stats.  Perhaps that's why honesty, integrity, and concern for his reputation fell completely to the wayside. Visions of a traffic spike dancing before his eyes, Frum jumped to the defense of ex-NewsReal blogger Alex Knepper, intimating that Horowitz fired Knepper because he wouldn't toe the paleoconservative (?!) line.  Today Frum doubled down at The Daily Dish, ridiculing NRB managing editor David Swindle for "accusing our young...

David Frum’s self-serving war on talk radio has alienated many conservatives who once respected what he had to say, but the latest from his website may hit a new low. FrumForum’s Tim Mak reports that a Mormon radio station in Salt Lake City has dropped Sean Hannity’s show, and it couldn’t possibly be a simple business decision: While the station asserts that the move was made to make room for more local programming, the Salt Lake Tribune’s Glen Warchol reports that Hannity’s show apparently ran counter to the LDS-owned KSL radio’s new mission statement, which includes articles such as: -...

The Tea Party Is A Turn-Off For US Moderates America's angriest political force could learn from David Cameron, argues David Frum. By David Frum 20 Jun 2010 The bill for the Republicans' Tea Party is about to arrive. Through 2009 and the first half of 2010, the media have buzzed with delighted horror over the supposedly unstoppable Tea Party movement in the United States. Now it's reality time. Compare two sets of Senate races. The first is made up of contests in New Hampshire, Ohio and Illinois. The first two of these seats had been held by Republicans who did...

It's called "Left, Right and Center," which claims to be a "civilized yet provocative antidote to the screaming talking heads that dominate political debate." But there's not a whole lot of truth in advertising for KCRW Santa Monica's radio program, which is also podcasted on the Internet. The show normally features Robert Scheer, editor of the left-wing investigative Web site Truthdig.com and a former Los Angeles Times columnist, representing the left. Matt Miller, a former Clintonista and senior fellow at the left-wing Center for American Progress represents the so-called center. And former Washington Times editorial page editor and visiting senior...

So what happens when you put the likes of David Frum, Bruce Bartlett and now apparently Jim Manzi - pseudo-conservatives with a penchant for criticizing Republicans and other conservatives all in the same place? You have the makings of a New York Times hit piece on conservatism. In the April 27 issue of the Times, a story in its Style section of all places by Patricia Cohen, singled out and accused a number of conservatives of "closed-mindedness" or as the article claimed "epistemic closure." "It is hard to believe that a phrase as dry as ‘epistemic closure' could get anyone...

At this point David Frum is just making a fool out of himself, he bashes Rush and then takes a shot at the talk radio audience numbers, this from CNN's Reliable Sources (Video)

Is it possible to be so wrapped up in a media culture that one could minimize a sacred religious holiday in a shoddy attempt to write a clever headline? Mediaite's Tommy Christopher and his editors seemed to have pulled this feat off. Christopher, who has had a much-publicized run-in with Andrew Breitbart, has a new hero, former American Enterprise Institute scholar David Frum. Christopher elevated Frum to messianic status in a Good Friday April 2 post headlined "Did David Frum ‘Die' For GOP's Sins?" specifically praising the former AEI scholar for his appearance on Comedy Central's April 1 "The Colbert...

David Frum’s forced exit from the American Enterprise Institute has precipitated rhetorical fire from the company men of the conservative movement. How disappointing is the Right’s reaction to David Frum’s dismissal from the American Enterprise Institute? Well, let’s review. To the National Review’s Mark Steyn, the entire brouhaha is little more than a personality squabble involving David, Bruce Bartlett and Conor Friedersdorf. As such, Steyn argues, this incident is unworthy of anyone’s time or attention. Steyn even belittles David for arguing with other conservatives, including the late great Robert Novak, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin,...

By now, many Chronicles readers have no doubt heard that David Frum was fired from his cushy job at the American Enterprise Institute, following an online column claiming that the passage of Obamacare was the GOP’s “Waterloo,” which could have been avoided if the GOP had been more willing to negotiate with Obama. Frum is now charging that AEI tossed him because it was responding to pressure from its donors, a charge eminent AEI scholar Charles Murray has denounced at National Review Online as “despicable,” since it is unsupported by evidence and is calculated to appeal to the leftist media....

The Right’s response to David Frum’s perceived heresies has inflicted serious intellectual and political damage on the conservative movement. I’m a full-spectrum conservative of conviction. But even if I leaned to the left, I still would find it laudatory that, in recent decades, political conservatives in America have been the most steadfast defenders of freedom of speech and the most vigorous champions of free and open intellectual inquiry. Indeed, no graduate of an American college or university in the past quarter century cannot help but notice that the biggest threat to free speech today comes not from the political Right,...

Three days after calling health-care reform a debacle for the Republicans, David Frum was forced out of his job at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. The ouster also came one day after a harsh Wall Street Journal editorial about the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, which said that he "now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans" and accused him of "peddling bad revisionist history." Frum made clear in a letter to AEI President Arthur Brooks that his departure after seven years at the conservative think tank was not voluntary. "I have had...

Being reported by Huffington What took the think tank so long?

Dear Arthur, This will memorialize our conversation at lunch today. Effective immediately, my position as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute is terminated. I appreciate the consideration that delays my emptying of my office until after my return from travel next week. Premises will be vacated no later than April 9. I have had many fruitful years at the American Enterprise Institute, and I do regret this abrupt and unexpected conclusion of our relationship. Very truly yours, David Frum

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...

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s. It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But: (1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs. (2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle...

t’s page 258 – and suddenly we are back in Campaign Mode. The transition is very abrupt. On pages 256, Romney is describing an interesting program he advocated in Massachusetts: “a Parental Preparation Program for every underperforming school district. In order for parents in these districts to enroll their children in public school, the parents would have been required to attend classes themselves, where they would learn about the value of education as well as ways in which they could support their children’s educational experience.” On p. 257, a funny story about Romney’s business career, about his unsuccessful attempt to...

Frum sees him as an antidote to the Tea Party madness: Strong on defense and school choice, opposed to the Obama administration’s signature initiatives, Brown voted in favor of Mitt Romney’s health plan in Massachusetts. He describes himself as pro-choice (subject to reasonable limitations), accepts gay marriage in Massachusetts as a settled fact, and told the Boston Herald editorial board he would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor.

Friends, Romneybots, CBSnewmen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Palin, not to praise her. The gaffes that candidates do lives after them; The good is oft interred on the cutting-room floor; So let it be with Palin. The noble Frum Hath told you Palin was uncultured: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Palin answer'd it. Here, under leave of Brooks and the rest - For Brooks is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men - Come I to speak in Palin's funeral. She was my friend, faithful and just...

Canadian David Frum is like the cross-eyed marksman, he can see the target but just can't ever hit it. The self-styled conservative has been the Old Media's leading conservative in attacking, well, other conservatives. Naturally his Dec. 25 piece on theweek.com is no exception. Not only does he attack other conservatives, as is his wont, he so badly misreads the Constitution and certain other facts in the healthcare debate, it makes one wonder if he's muffing it all on purpose? He does, however, get one salient fact right: the U.S. has already so ignored the U.S. Constitution that this socialist...

Having urged the president to honor his commitment to the Afghan war, we Republicans must honor our commitment to support him as he fights it. Given the public unenthusiasm for the conflict, there will be political temptations to “go rogue” on the president, if not now, then in the summer of 2010. That will be our test, for us to pass as the president has passed his. I know many Republicans and conservatives will say: “Hey – the Democrats did not give President Bush support when he most needed it.” Correct. They didn’t. And the country suffered for it. The...