The Prodigal Frum Departs

Not that my personal opinion of David Frum was very high in the first place (the guy did write speeches for Dubya after all) but clearly the guy's widely-quoted "Waterloo" article speaking truth to power got him axed by the famed conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, despite the denials.  TPM's Zack Roth:

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the split with AEI was not prompted by Frum's criticism of the GOP. Rather, Brooks expressed concern that Frum had been occupied with other projects outside of AEI, and wasn't a sufficiently active member of the AEI scholars community. Out of fairness to other AEI scholars, Brooks asked Frum to forgo his salary -- an offer Frum angrily rejected.

In a statement provided to TPMmuckraker, AEI said:

While AEI 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 AEI. 

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.

Frum declined to comment to TPMmuckraker, but this afternoon he told the PlumLine that Brooks had asked him to work without pay, because of the think-tank's financial difficulties, and had assured him that the move had nothing to do with Frum's recent criticism of the GOP.

None of this has stopped speculation to the contrary, however. In a blog post of his own, conservative economist Bruce Bartlett -- who himself was fired by a conservative think tank in 2005 after criticizing President Bush's policies -- wrote today that Frum recently had told him that AEI scholars had been "ordered" not to speak publicly on the subject of health-care reform "because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do."

Several AEI scholars have gone public on the subject -- though all have been opposed to Obama's plan.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote this afternoon: "One has to assume that this is a response to his outspokenness about the Republican failure on health reform."

Yeah, AEI isn't fooling anyone on this.  Just like politicians never actually resign to spend more time with their families, Frum wasn't actually parting ways because of side gigs, either.  You don't lose a think tank job after being a Republican presidential speechwriter because there's no money in it.  Frum on the letterhead gave the AEI prestige, just like any other ex-White House staffer would do for any think tank (on either side of the aisle).  It's the equivalent of having a famous senior partner at a law firm or on a company's board of directors.

Frum deviated from the program, and they threw him overboard for it.  Critics of Obama say he's a tyrant because he doesn't tolerate dissenting views.  That's hysterical, because many of the dissenting views on his policies come from those on the Left.

However on the Right, it's a different story.  Frum spoke out against eliminationist rhetoric and GOP mendacity, and got his walking papers as a direct result.  Some tolerance of dissenting views you guys have over there...