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Odious Conservatives
Townhall.com ^ | April 1, 2010 | Emmett Tyrrell

Posted on 04/01/2010 4:29:40 AM PDT by Kaslin

WASHINGTON -- A major proposition that I advance in a book that will be published later this month, "After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery," is that there exists an odious subgroup of conservatives who, since the beginning of the conservative movement, have made their way to prominence in the mainstream media by a cheap act. They disparage, with great melodrama, other conservatives. Liberals love it -- and, for a while, love the disparagers. In the late 1990s, Arianna Huffington exploited this instrument of self-promotion brazenly. For several years, David Frum has been doing it haltingly, even timorously. However, in the past two weeks, he has been pulling a Huffington with unusual boldness.

First he smeared Sean Hannity. Then he reproached conservative opponents of the Democrats' health care monstrosity. Now he is claiming martyrdom at the hands of Arthur Brooks, the head of the American Enterprise Institute, which housed him as a resident fellow for seven years, reportedly at a salary of $100,000 a year. Brooks was willing to let him stay on at AEI but without a salary. Very theatrically Frum(p) quit, and the liberals pronounced him a great man. My thesis is again vindicated, and you will understand my satisfaction in reporting that in "Hangover," I have embalmed Frum(p) as a perfect example of the conservative hustler, manipulating liberal approval. I call his type the Reformed Conservatives, or RCs.

Of a sudden, Frum(p) is in a mad rush to become the Arianna Huffington of the present moment. He smears Hannity, snipes at opponents of Obamacare and calumniates AEI. What will be his next move in pulling an Arianna? Perhaps he will find a rich Texan to marry and fleece tens of millions of dollars so he can move to California and open a salon for Hollywood pinheads. Maybe he even will affect an unintelligible foreign accent -- Dahling.

Frum(p)'s attack on Hannity was particularly galling to me, for he sought legitimacy by dragging in my magazine, The American Spectator. He cited an unedited entry on our Web site's blog that was not only inadvertently published but also colossally inaccurate and misleading. Upon hearing of it, I immediately ordered it removed and replaced with the following notice:

"Information regarding Freedom Alliance (a Hannity charity smeared by Frum) that appeared earlier in this spot was inaccurate or misleading and has been removed. Any further mention of this material as having appeared in this post will either mention our disavowal or be deceiving to readers."

In his original smear of Hannity, Frum(p) had not even verified the charges against him. He simply republished the rubbish, claiming the charges to be "credible." Eventually, he discovered the bogosity of the charges and acknowledged his error, but he has yet to note that AmSpec repudiated them, too.

Since then, he has rebuked Republicans for opposing Obamacare, claiming that they failed to negotiate with Democrats. This attracted the approval of White House flack Robert Gibbs. It also attracted the attention of a lead Wall Street Journal editorial, which noted that Frum(p) "now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans." In typical WSJ fashion, the editorial then proceeded to cite the Democrats' record of cutting the Republicans out of any possible bipartisan legislation.

Truth be known, Frum(p) is as much a hustler as Carlos Allen, the third gate-crasher at President Barack Obama's state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Allen, you will recall, is the proprietor of something called the Hush Galleria, "an exclusive and luxurious private social club whose members enjoy unparalleled access to elite movers and shakers." Maybe when Frum(p) moves to Hollywood and opens his salon, he will found a similar establishment. It could be called "Comfort Station," promising "an exclusive and luxurious private social club whose members enjoy unparalleled access to elite movers and shakers."

With a little luck, he might get Arianna to attend his grand opening after she helps him with his new continental accent -- Dahling.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: conservatives; rebuilding; tyrrell

1 posted on 04/01/2010 4:29:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Heh.


2 posted on 04/01/2010 4:36:55 AM PDT by Woebama (Never, never, never quit)
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To: Kaslin
I don't know of David Frum but I am well aware of Freedom Alliance and the work Sean Hannity is doing.

Frum bust be scum to do what he did.

He is not the only so called conservative to do these kinds of things. There is also David Brooks on the alphabet media(I forget which one and it really does not matter. He likes to smear folks like Governor Sarah Palin.

Both Frum and Brooks are cheap shot artists who mentally masturbate at the thought of obtaining the approval of the MSM.

My American Staffordshire Terrier has more integrity and probably scratches himself less than these two mutts.

3 posted on 04/01/2010 4:47:27 AM PDT by wmileo
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To: Kaslin

I’ve never thought of Frum as a conservative any more than I think someone wearing a Scoobie Doo Halloween mask is the Queen of England. How did such a poser crash the party?


4 posted on 04/01/2010 4:48:06 AM PDT by GBA
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To: wmileo
According to Wikipedia, Frum is a Canadian-American conservative journalist. And to what I understand Conservatism in Canaduh is different from our conservatism.

Frum is a Conservative In Name Only

5 posted on 04/01/2010 5:01:43 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

I guess the (p)is for prostitute.


6 posted on 04/01/2010 5:19:57 AM PDT by Pietro ("I am not an idealouge" BHO; "I am not a crook" RMN)
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To: Kaslin

I guess the (p)is for prostitute.


7 posted on 04/01/2010 5:20:49 AM PDT by Pietro ("I am not an idealouge" BHO; "I am not a crook" RMN)
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To: Kaslin

The way that conservatives can find common ground is to get behind the idea of Smaller Federal Gov’t.

Everything else flows from that one concept — lower taxes, more freedom, less onerous regulations on business, stronger private property rights, less people feeding at the gov’t trough, less corruption, etc.

But instead conservatives get a pet project of some sort and then chastise all the other conservatives because they aren’t on the same bandwagon. It’s about uniting behind a purpose, and there is one that all conservatives can surely embrace, and that is reducing the size of federal gov’t.


8 posted on 04/01/2010 5:28:57 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: Kaslin
The problem I have with Frum and Brooks is that they are both moral cowards.

Conservatism in Canaduh verses the USA has nothing to do with it. However, thank you for the Bio information on Frum.

9 posted on 04/01/2010 5:36:58 AM PDT by wmileo
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To: Kaslin

After Frum trashed Palin on CBS. I sent him an email saying he made his last cent off of conservatism.

I was right.


10 posted on 04/01/2010 5:56:52 AM PDT by y6162
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