dagblog - Comments for "The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum"

Actually, Frum had originally

seashell — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:33:15 +0000

In reply to The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum

Actually, Frum had originally written "Axis of Hatred". Mike Gerson (shudder) changed it to "Axis of Evil" so as to be in keeping with Bush's post 9/11 use of "theological language".

Carry on. :-)

No, I completely agree. And

DF — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:34:00 +0000

In reply to Don't mind me DF. I'm a big

No, I completely agree. And there is something of the freak show element (hence my use of the word 'inimitable' - clearly, there's nothing actually special about Frum's lapses of sanity and nothing preventing his cohorts from similar).

I think the big difference with Bartlett is that he really, really bought into supply-side economics. He didn't spend all of his time holding forth with the sanctimony that Frum did. It was always because he really believed that he had the economics right. So when the economics turned out not to be so right AND the rest of his party began swinging from the chandeliers, well, there was nothing really left for him there.

And I agree about the capitulation from the Dem side. I don't like it and never have. I was really, really disappointed to see Obama pursue the golden goose of "bipartisanship" so resolutely. Frankly, I started to feel like his ego was overriding his common sense, that he felt like his personality or rhetoric was somehow transcendent enough to squash ideological battles that go back decades, if not centuries.

In any case, thank you for the most inspiring vision of the Senate that I've heard in quite some time.

More on the cheerleader

quinn esq — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:28:05 +0000

In reply to Don't mind me DF. I'm a big

More on the cheerleader outfits, please.....

Don't mind me DF. I'm a big

Obey — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:23:15 +0000

In reply to I don't love Frum. That's

Don't mind me DF. I'm a big fan of most of what you write. This just stuck in my craw, and I'm trying to put my finger on why it does so. Imo, Bartlett is different. I can read his posts and find them interesting and thoughtprovoking. Frum I generally don't read, but every time I come across a quote, he's NEVER saying anything interesting or thoughtprovoking. People quote him, and trot him out just for the spectacle of a monkey on a bicycle-type thing. Oh, a Republican not contesting the patently obvious! He isn't 'debating the reality we live in'. He comes across as someone who's just copy-pasting some random non-crazy comment and waiting for the page-views to flow in as liberals clap in excitement. Why are we so fucking excited about boring uninventive middle of the road commentators just because they carry a GOP badge? And this question isn't - and shouldn't have originally been phrased as - an insult or accusation. Why are we liberals so consistently uneasy about hard-core belligerant adversarial politics. Every other party in every other country (except Switzerland, where I live, somewhat ironically) is perfectly happy with attack politics.

Part of the reason, imo, that the GOP has become so wildly insanely extremist, is because every time they move right, the Dems get uncomfortable and nudge over to reach across the aisle for a group hug, which in a sense just FORCES the GOP further right - there's nowhere else to go, and there NEEDS to be a space between the parties.

Anyway, I'm wandering off topic...

I don't love Frum. That's

DF — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:01:49 +0000

In reply to I find this newfound

I don't love Frum. That's not at all the message of this post. And you only have to go back about two years to find him saying outlandish stuff (something he still does, just less outlandish and less frequently). However, when people like Frum or Bartlett are debating the reality we live in rather than spending their time inventing their own, I do regard that as better. Why? Because like or not, I live in a world with these people - they work, they vote, they run for and hold political office. If I had a choice between Frum and, say, Joe Barton, I would take Frum everytime.

That doesn't mean I have any illusions about the massive rift in ideology or that I want to hold hands and sing Kumbaya (although your vision of the Senate sounds more entertaining, if not more productive).

I know you've sort of already

anna am — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:01:35 +0000

In reply to I find this newfound

I know you've sort of already taken it there, but frum-love really does sound like some kind of unmentionable act.

Believe me, I am not saying

DF — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:54:32 +0000

In reply to We're like the Chinese -

Believe me, I am not saying that I think some flashes of sanity on issues that are pretty easy to be sane about redeems him for his work during the Bush administration. And I did mention his originating "axis of evil," which is probably one of the more insipid things I've heard a sitting President say in my lifetime. However, it's really only a shade worse than "evil empire." Not that it makes Frum's phrase any better, but the bar was pretty low when he showed up.

I find this newfound

Obey — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:22:08 +0000

In reply to The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum

I find this newfound Frum-love on the left really depressing. Or annoying. Remember, this is the fricking lunatic who wrote 'The End of Evil', his grand plan to eradicate poverty malaria EVIL from the face of the earth! EVIL! He thought he could stop ... all bad things from ever happening again. ...He is seriously unhinged.

What bothers me is the whole attitude of -

'Look, look, a Conservative NOT challenging basic self-evident facts of reality!!!?!'

And they aren't just saying it in the sense of 'wow- weird freak of nature!' surprise and curiosity. Which would be okay, really.

They're saying it like he's some political porn fantasy come to life.

Oooh a conservative who shows we can all just get along... mmm, yummy. Imagine if there were more like him, we could all rip our clothes off and, like, get freaky on the floor of the Senate...

No, sorry guys, unicorns don't exist, no, hot housewives don't generally receive plumbers in their high school cheerleader outfits, and no, Frum is not your wet dream Reasonable Republican. He just plays one on the internets...

Yep. I wrote about Frum in

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:35:40 +0000

In reply to The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum

Yep. I wrote about Frum in Blowing Smoke. He is one of the few conservatives to stand up against persecution politics. Here's a quote from him that hits the mark:

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, we’d been fighting to protect the commonsense instincts of ordinary people from elite interference. Now, in the Terri Schiavo euthanasia case, with stem cell research, on gay rights issues, it was we who had become the interfering elite, against a society that was reaching its own new equilibrium. Of course, that’s not how conservatives saw it. We saw a country divided in two, red states and blue, NASCAR vs. NPR, real America against the phonies in the cities. A movement that had begun as an intellectual one now scornfully pooh-poohed the need for people in government to know anything much at all...Instead, we rallied to Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber.

We're like the Chinese -

quinn esq — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:30:50 +0000

In reply to You know, I'm getting a bit

We're like the Chinese - Inscrutable AND difficult to count. We find the balaclavas really helped with the inscrutability. And the skates and rollerblades make us really difficult to count.

P.S. Did you know Louis G Mayer AND Jack Warner were Canadians? Yup. Mary Pickford too. I'll bet your fatigue is growing, isn't it?

P.P.S. In Canada, Frum's Mum Barbara is still regarded as a media goddess. She was an American Jewess who moved to Canada during university. I'll bet the fatigue is almost crippling now.

P.P.P.S. We won last year's World Series of Boredom, beating the Belgians 1002-1001 after 879 innings.

Oh yeah. Screw David Frum, wherever he's from and whatever he says. Little twerp. Coining that idiotic phrase "Axis of Evil" alone should have seen him imprisoned. Asshole of Evil.