[Jack.Kerr]

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

While I am not in the "we" discussion here (i am not a republican)... I think many Davis Frum's strategic observations here are on teh mark.


http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

Were you referring to THIS David Frum, the now former conservative 'think' tank fellow?

March 25, 2010, 4:17 PM
Frum Forced Out at Conservative Institute
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Updated: Over the past week, David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization, has emerged as one of the leading critics of the way Republicans dealt with President Obama’s health care bill.

The party, Mr. Frum said, put politics over policy in trying to damage Mr. Obama’s agenda, and lost both the political battle and the ability to influence a key piece of legislation. In a column Mr. Frum posted at the FrumForum, he wrote that the House passage of the health care bill had become the Republicans’ “Waterloo,” rather than Mr. Obama’s, as a leading G.O.P. senator had once warned.

As of Thursday, Mr. Frum had become a former fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mr. Frum said he was taken out to lunch by the president of the organization, Arthur C. Brooks. He said Mr. Brooks told him the institute valued a diversity of opinion, and welcomed that one of its scholars had become such a high-profile critic of Republican legislative leaders. Mr. Frum, who has been with the institute since 2003, said that he was asked if he would considering being associated with the institute on a nonsalaried basis.

Mr. Frum declined.

“Does it have anything to do with what would be the most obvious explanation of what happened?” he said in an interview after his lunch. “I don’t know. That’s not what they say.”

Asked if he believed that explanation, Mr. Frum responded, “I’m not going to say that they’re not telling the truth.”

Update: Mr. Brooks later issued a written statement confirming Mr. Frum’s departure, but declining to say what had happened. “While A.E.I. makes it a practice not to discuss personnel matters, I can say that David Frum is an original thinker and a friend to many at A.E.I.,” his statement said.

At the same time, Mr. Brooks suggested that it was Mr. Frum’s decision to leave and that he had not been forced out. “We are pleased to have welcomed him as a colleague for seven years, and his decision to leave in no way diminishes our respect for him,” he said in the statement. An aide said Mr. Brooks was not available for further comment.