Day By Day

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Egregious Frummery

Johnny Mac's defeat seems to have touched off a civil war in conservative ranks not unlike that ensuing amongst Democrats after Carter's humiliation in 1980. Various groups have emerged trying to define or re-define "conservatism" according to their own beliefs and biases. One of the more amusing of these is described by Jerry Pournelle:
I note that Ramesh Ponnuru and a gang that includes the egregious Frum want to reform Conservatism, and have formed a sort of Conservative Leadership Council. He's also trying to backpedal from the egregious Frum's trashing of Sarah Palin for not being an intellectual elitist. This gang of comparatively young people who think they know conservatism is very interesting, but so far I have seen little evidence that they know what being conservative means, and if their notion of good judgment is to look to the egregious Frum as an example, I do not think they will be very successful.
Read it here. [HT: Instapundit]

"The egregious Frum"! I like it and will use it.

David Frum, perhaps after George Will the most insufferably snobbish pundit claiming membership in the conservative ranks, has long been telling all and sundry that the conservative base is a farce. I first encountered him through his book "Dead Right," published in 1994, which declared that the Reagan revolution (properly considered of course) had not been all that "conservative".

Nice timing, David.

Until recently the egregious one found employment at National Review Online where I read him from time to time. From thence he has departed to strike out in new directions with a group of like-minded dissidents. Read about it here.

This should be fun. I like it when pseudo-intellectuals fight. They're so bitchy!