David Frum is an odd duck. And not because he's Canadian, which makes him a little less unlikely to understand American politics--and perhaps a bit more humble. But no such luck: As the leader and sole trumpeter in his own one-man-band, Frum now pontificates on the state of the conservative movement--preaching, of course, mostly to liberals, who lap up his anti-GOP criticism.
Having toiled in the think-tank vineyards in the 80s and 90s, he got a job as a speechwriter to President George W. Bush in 2001. Whereupon he took credit for the phrase "axis of evil," uttered by W. in early 2002--and which was at best only the partial author--and was pushed out of the White House shortly thereafter. That short experience, with very limited contact to the President, didn't stop Frum from writing a book, of course. And then he co-wrote a genuinely strange book, entitled, An End to Evil, the title of which gives away the presumptuous preposterousness of the author.
The American Spectator's Daniel Flynn wrote a great takedown of Frum, noting:
Frum supported the banker bailout. He wrote last September, "I say 'aye' to the proposed national debt bailout -- and a big shout out to Rep. Barney Frank, one of its early authors, who has been a prescient early voice on the need for a big solution to a big problem." He is pro abortion-rights: "I am not pro-life. I think abortion ought to be legal for the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy and available to protect the health of the mother during the weeks thereafter. I don't see this as a matter of fundamental human rights, so much as one of accommodating reality." In his latest volume of advice to conservatives, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, he advises them to get over their fixation of lowering income-tax rates and offers a massive "carbon tax" as a way of promoting "green conservatism." David Frum, in other words, isn't very conservative these days.
But it's actually weirder than that, because Frum is the favorite "conservative" of many liberals--the go-to "conservative" for bashing real conservatives, such as Rush Limbaugh.
And one AmSpec reader went further, labeling Frum a "Branch Davidian" Republican--that is, a tiny sect, with no legitimate connection to the larger whole.
Now Frum is attacking Fox News, specifically Glen Beck. Well, consider the source--Frum hilariously calls his site "New Majority," but the fact is that he is the leader of a cult that seems to consist mostly of him, a few liberals, and his trust fund.
