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Frum reportedly says donor pressure led to his firing from AEI

March 26, 2010 2:10 pm ET by Matt Gertz

In a post to his Frum Forum blog yesterday, former Bush speechwriter David Frum announced that his position with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute had been "terminated," adding that it was an "abrupt and unexpected conclusion."

Frum had stated days before in a much-circulated blog post that conservatives and the GOP had suffered a "crushing legislative defeat" with the passage of health care reform legislation, and blamed it on the movement and the party themselves. According to Frum, they should have negotiated with the Democrats in good faith and tried to make a deal, but were "trapped" because "Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible."

Frum followed up his "Waterloo" blog post with an appearance on ABC's Nightline, in which he stated that "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox."

This morning, Politico's Mike Allen reports Frum's explanation for his "axing" is pressure from AEI donors:

EXCLUSIVE: David Frum told us last night that he believes his axing from his $100,000-a-year "resident scholar" gig at the conservative American Enterprise Institute was related to DONOR PRESSURE following his viral blog post arguing Republicans had suffered a devastating, generational "Waterloo" in their loss to President Obama on health reform. "There's a lot about the story I don't really understand," Frum said from his iPhone. "But the core of the story is the kind of economic pressure that intellectual conservatives are under. AEI represents the best of the conservative world. [AEI President] Arthur Brooks is a brilliant man, and his books are fantastic. But the elite isn't leading anymore. It's trapped. Partly because of the desperate economic situation in the country, what were once the leading institutions of conservatism are constrained. I think Arthur took no pleasure in this. I think he was embarrassed. I think he would have avoided it if he possibly could, but he couldn't." 

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    • Author by sardonic (March 26, 2010 2:18 pm ET)
         
      I completely agree. As a relative moderate, I was hoping some of the conservative ideas (interstate shopping for insurance) would have been given more time, but instead it was just obstructionism.

      I watched one of my congressmen, who I've voted for 3 times, go from a level headed person, to an unhinged Rush talking point repeater.
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    • Author by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© (March 26, 2010 2:22 pm ET)
      6  
      A.E.I. is the outfit that started the argument that liberals and the Community Reinvestment Act were responsible for the Bush-Cheney asset bubble and burst.

      This was a despicable argument with no support, other than handwaving: "Liberals made the banks lend money to the poors who then defaulted on their loans". Naturally, the right-wing base ate that up and believes it to this day.

      Frum may be getting off the crazy train, but there is no excusing what A.E.I. has done and continues to do.
      ~
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    • Author by JoeSixpack (March 26, 2010 3:28 pm ET)
        1
      Apologies for nitpicking, but who cares what kind of phone Frum has? It seems kind of odd to deliberately point out that it's an iPhone. Is Apple paying for this little bit of product placement?
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      • Author by roverflash (March 26, 2010 8:09 pm ET)
        1  
        It's sort of a journalism ethics thing that if an interview doesn't take place in-person or by telephone, the reporter should mention how the person was reached (email, etc.) Perhaps this was done through text message or instant messaging on an iPhone.
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    • Author by tharri874 (March 26, 2010 3:34 pm ET)
      3  
      It was pretty obvious to everyone that Frum was not going to last long with the right wing think tank crowd once he had the nerve to break with its orthodoxy.

      Conservative activism is all about the money, and this shows how it attracts people and controls them.

      Right Wing Think Tanks are all Tank and no Think.

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    • Author by cleareyedlib (March 26, 2010 5:32 pm ET)
         
      Brooks could have refused, or he could have resigned. People take brave stands every day when they have a lot more to lose than Arthur Brooks did. Cowards like Brooks can expect pity, but they shouldn't expect to be excused.
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    • Author by political_left-religious_right (March 29, 2010 10:48 am ET)
         
      And the average IQ of the conservative media drops five more points.
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