Steyn: David Frum Far Guiltier Than Limbaugh of Putting Himself In Front of Party

March 10th, 2009 7:48 AM

David Frum is becoming famous for insisting that Rush Limbaugh knows he's keeping conservatives out of power, and revels in it for his own self-interest. On The Corner, Mark Steyn soundly announces the principle that when one accepts the proposal of a liberal "news" magazine to author a cover story that suggests Limbaugh should shut his mouth, you might be what you're calling the other guy:

David Frum has now gleefully iterated his complaint about Rush's personal failings in at least three places -- his own website, The National Post of Canada, and Newsweek. The last was certainly a mistake, because it's no friend to the conservative cause and thus makes David look far guiltier of the sin he keeps accusing Rush of -- putting his own interests ahead of the party's.

(Not true, by the way: Rush has all the money he'll ever need and in the years ahead Obama's going to be siphoning off as much as he can. If ever there were a time to retire to the Caribbean, this is it.)

...Our pal John O'Sullivan said to me a couple of months back that conservative "reformers" should be required to produce some elementary arithmetic showing that all the people turned off by the "reforms" will be replaced by at least the same number of people plus one. David Frum thinks the Republican Party needs to cut loose Rush, a man whose millions of listeners account for a significant proportion of the GOP base. It's not clear who, if anyone, David brings to the table in return. Notwithstanding his Strange New Respect from Newsweek, he should find something new to talk about.   

Jay Nordlinger goes into detail, as well, even this:

Just a final word — nitpicky: Newsweek headed its article "Why Rush is Wrong." Bad editors are always doing that: forgetting to capitalize “is” in titles, which should go up like any other verb (“talks,” “eats,” “sucks,” etc.). But I don’t call them morons (at least out loud).