»» Columnists

Did David Frum “Die” For GOP’s Sins?

video

by Tommy Christopher | 10:26 am, April 2nd, 2010

» 18 comments

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum appeared on The Colbert Report last night to discuss his firing from the American Enterprise Institute for daring to tell the truth about the GOP’s defeat on health care. He rightly corrected host Stephen Colbert‘s assertion that he was a conservative “apostate,” but that’s probably Frum’s biggest problem right now. Conservative apostates can still make a living, but nobody wants a conservative heretic.

Frum’s problem becomes evident when he begins to explain why health care reform was a bad idea:

See, he still wants to be a conservative. That really cuts down on his job prospects. If he was a true apostate, he’d be the toast of the liberal blogosphere, telling appreciative millions how he’s seen the light.

Instead, Frum finds himself part of a small, lonely crowd. Christopher Buckley, himself ostracized for his endorsement of Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign, says that his late father (and modern conservatism’s father) William F. Buckley would agree that firing Frum was a mistake. That may be true, but this is not your father’s GOP. Buckley himself was forced out of The National Review, the magazine his father founded, just days after that endorsement of Obama. If his dad were still alive, a defense of Frum might even land him on the GOP’s blacklist.

Colbert hits the nail on the head when he compares the GOP to a cult. The 2008 election, and the health care debate after, saw the Republicans increasingly whipping up and harnessing the energy of that fringe that Frum spoke of. The big difference now, though, is that it is the cult’s followers who are offering the Kool Aid, and the cult’s leaders who must now drink.

Still, these are unique times. With the GOP pursuing its promise to run on repealing health care reform, and with today’s encouraging job numbers, Frum and I could look like geniuses come November. That’ll be good for me, but what it does for Frum is anyone’s guess. If November goes badly enough, maybe the Republicans wake up and start listening to voices like Frum’s. More likely, though, is that it will actually increase Frum’s radioactivity. Nobody likes to hear “I told you so!” He can always join Buckley and Meghan McCain at The Daily Beast.

barack obama, Christopher Buckley, David Frum, Health Care Reform, Meghan McCain, stephen colbert, Tommy Christopher

http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Every poll for as far back as anyone can recall shows that a majority of people oppose the health care bill. Even after it has passed, a clear majority support repealing it.

You may disagree. You may think that majority is wrong. But how can you characterize that as a “fringe” movement or a “cult.”

That isn’t a coherent argument; that is an attempt to marginalize and demonize people with which you disagree.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

I’m all for debating the merits of the health care bill. I’ll take up that challenge against any and all comers. But is it possible for a leftist to have that debate without any reference to who is “fringe,” or claiming that I’m really a violent racist? Yesterday, on this very website, I was told that Timonthy McVeigh must be one of my heros. If you know me, you would know that that is the furtherest possible thing from truth, and I’ve certainly never made any statement here that could ever be construed that way. Can you guys just stop with the ad hominem attacks?
paulmdoro

How about everyone stops with the ad hominem attacks? It’s not like one side of the argument can claim to be above the fray here.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

paulmdoro:

I didn’t launch an ad hominem attack on anyone, but in this post Tommy essentially called me part of the “fringe” and part of a “cult.” I can’t control what anyone else says. I can control what I say. Tommy can control what he says. He should strike “fringe” and “cult.”
paulmdoro

I didn’t mean you personally. I was speaking of both sides as a whole.
Grammie

Did David Frum “Die” For GOP’s Sins?

Tommy, do you feel completely comfortable with this title especially considering its heightened shock value on a day that Christians revere so much?

I’m not a practicing anything and I find it highly offensive. Having started out with your deliberately provocative and insulting , whether consciously or not, title why not carry the idea all the way thru.

Imagine the fun you could have with Fundtians, The Way of the Fund, The Passion of Fund, Fund’s Sermon on the Colbert.

I’m seriously disappointed in you and nothing I’ve read by you prepared for this.
Grammie

BTW, I am completely aware that I substituted John Fund for David Frum.

I would offer the reason but it is such a convoluted example of a senior moment I won’t bore you.
Caryson

This article is pathetic!

Colbert says the GOP is a cult and the author, Tommy Christopher agreess? Call 911 and get their lips removed from each other’s ass!

Seems to me they both are just some “Obamacans” who just can’t! And by the way, who cares what David Frum says? I certainly don’t. His time has come and gone. He wants the GOP to present their ideas in pastel colors. Now is the time for bold colors. No Democrat light politics. It doesn’t work.

Truth be told, this is not the Democratic party of your parents. This is not the Democratic Party of JFK.

This is the Democratic Party of Alinsky, Ayers and the Chicago thugs.

In March Rasumussen reported that 32.9% of likely voters identified themselves as Republicans, 36.2% as Democrats and 30.9% as Independents. Other polls have already come out saying Obama has lost the majority of Independents.

When you look at the stats, the GOP doesn’t look like much of cult to me. They look more like a Pheonix rising from the ashes. It is a party that has come to grips with the mistakes they made and and are moving past them in spite of being demonized by the left wing media. Can the Democrats say the same?

What will Kool-Aid drinkers like Colbert say when the Democrats lose the congress?

Stay tuned…………….
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Grammie:

_____
Imagine the fun you could have with Fundtians, The Way of the Fund, The Passion of Fund, Fund’s Sermon on the Colbert.
_____

Brilliant! And thank you for your kind words on the other post!
buzzman3588

You”re kidding right? You call the GOP a cult. If they are a cult what on God’s earth do you call the Democrats, :the Stepford Wives”.
Smithy

by Tommy Christopher :”Did David Frum “Die” For GOP’s Sins?

Lemme see if I get you right.
You are comparing the slimy, slippery, duplicitous, unprincipled David Frum to Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins during Easter are you?

The “never fails to dissappoint” Tommy Christopher strikes again!
Chortle!
Look, David Frum can say whatever he likes, wherever he likes. What he is not entitled to do though, is try and pass himself off as a “conservative” and represent a conservative organisation like AEI, even while working 100% to sabotage the conservative movement. AEI and those who contrbute their money to keep AEI going, have every right to demand that their monies are not spent, paying off some guy, who gets on his knees and worships 0bama whenever he wakes up in the morning.
0bama is by far the most left wing president this country has ever had. I don’t see how anyone can claim to be a “conservative”, while at the same time being a strong supporter of 0bama like David Frum is. The two are mutually exclusive. There is a huge field of super smart conservative analysts in the country (Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter etc), so why AEI even wasted their time and money employing a weasel like David Frum in the first place, is just puzzling to me.
Smithy

@ Caryson says: “Colbert says the GOP is a cult”

Colbert is Candaian, Frum is Canadian. ’nuff said!

” and the author, Tommy Christopher agreess?”

The author agrees with anything anti-conservative and anti-Republican.
Cecelia

I suppose any cycle into traditional conservatism is going to create in the left a proportional reaction which argues that neocons are the reasonable “true” conservatives (and vice-versa, as seen a mere years ago…)
StewartIII

NewsBusters: Mediaite Attempts to Elevate Pseudo-Con David Frum to Biblical Status
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/04/02/mediaite-attempts-elevate-pseudo-con-david-frum-biblical-status
shootfromthehip

This was the best 5 mins of TV I have seen this year.

Seriously.
http://www.thecobraslair.com Cobra

AnonymousFinch writes:

“Every poll for as far back as anyone can recall shows that a majority of people oppose the health care bill. Even after it has passed, a clear majority support repealing it.”

Where are you getting this stuff from?

CNN/OPINION RESEARCH:

“According to the poll, 47 percent agree with the Republican strategy and want Congress to repeal most of the major provisions in the bill and replace them with completely new proposals. But 50 percent are fine with the current law or want Congress to go back and pass something that would increase the government’s involvement in health care even further.

The 47 percent who favor “repeal and replace” is significantly lower than the 56 percent who say they disapprove of the bill’s passage last week.

“That’s because opposition to the new law comes in many different forms and not all of them benefit the GOP,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Some Americans continue to say that they disapprove of the bill because they want even more government involvement in health care than the bill created. Only a quarter are against the entire bill; one in three support at least a few proposals in the new law. And a handful of Americans appear to dislike the bill but don’t want Congress to spend any more time on health care.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/29/cnn-poll-americans-divided-on-repealing-health-care-law/?fbid=YvMctuC93Dy

David Frum says that Obama’s Plan resembles Nixon’s…and lo and behold:

“In 1974, Richard Nixon introduced his health care proposal.

It had an employer mandate.

It kept a private health insurance market.

But it included subsidies for low income employers and individuals.

Sounds like the Obama proposal.

Interestingly, Nixon offered nothing in the way of malpractice reform, which today’s Republicans insist is essential.

Nixon has also earlier signed into law the HMO act which was designed to bring down health care costs by ‘managing care,’ an attempt to change the fee-for-service behavior of physicians.

Something, almost all health economists say we must do.”

Richard M. Nixon, Finch? What was Nixon’s EXACT QUOTES ON WHY we needed Universal Healthcare?

“Across the Nation, the average cost of a day of hospital care now exceeds $110.
The average cost of delivering a baby and providing postnatal care approaches $1,000.

The average cost of health care for terminal cancer now exceeds $20,000.

For the average family, it is clear that without adequate insurance, even normal care can be a financial burden while a catastrophic illness can mean catastrophic debt.

Beyond the question of the prices of health care, our present system of health care insurance suffers from two major flaws :

First, even though more Americans carry health insurance than ever before, the 25 million Americans who remain uninsured often need it the most and are most unlikely to obtain it. They include many who work in seasonal or transient occupations, high-risk cases, and those who are ineligible for Medicaid despite low incomes.

Second, those Americans who do carry health insurance often lack coverage which is balanced, comprehensive and fully protective.”

Damn that sounds familiar. Now, Finch…are you going to call Nixon, the guy who bombed more Communists than any other American President a “socialist” for that speech?

How does the Nixon Plan compare to Obama’s?

“The current versions of health reform are the product of decades of debate between Republicans and Democrats. The bills are more conservative than Bill Clinton’s 1993 proposal. For that matter, they’re more conservative than Richard Nixon’s 1971 plan, which would have had the federal government provide insurance to people who didn’t get it through their job.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/business/economy/20leonhardt.html

Read that again, Finch. Republican President Richard M. Nixon’s Universal Health Care Plan had a GOVERNMENT RUN PUBLIC OPTION. In the irony of all ironies…it was a Democratically controlled Congress that rejected Nixon’s plan. It wasn’t “liberal” enough for Ted Kennedy.

What does Frum say again?

“Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.”

So Obamacare is described as MORE CONSERVATIVE than Nixon’s, broadly resembling Romney’s Plan in Massachusetts, building on ideas developed at the Conservative Think Tank Heritage Foundation that were used in Bob Dole(R) and Howard Baker’s(R) alternative to Hillarycare?

Obama’s a “socialist” for following THAT road map?

You want a healthcare debate, Finch? Let’s do it. Just know you’ll be debating Nixon, Dole, Baker, Romney and the Heritage Foundation as well.

–Cobra
kbkb220

This is an added discount mbt shoes benefit for people interested in buying the Fitness mbt shoes. The shoe has its cons mainly the price and the issue of cheap mbt shoes no proper research to verify the claims from the company.dfethgrtwer
kbkb220

Think Merrell is just for the more active Buy Casual Shoes man or lady? Well think again. Merrell shoes do not just produce casual shoes wholesale a range of performance footwear. Take a look at casual shoes the fresh new designs that look great worn casual and are suitable for everyday wear.dfethgrtwer