Well said

Dead Wrong

When liberals adopt you as their token conservative, kiss your credibility among conservatives goodbye and say hello to writing gigs at the Atlantic, appearances on Keith Olbermann's program, and lectures at the Kennedy School of Government. David Brooks, who serves as the house conservative to both PBS's News Hour and the New York Times op-ed page, could have told David Frum this. To be the liberals' favorite conservative is usually an indication of just how alienated from conservatism one really is.

You could toss Tucker Carlson in there to make it a trifecta.

There is only upside for Frum, though. The moment he denounced Rush Limbaugh, all his embarrassing moments went down the memory hole. No one cares anymore about the grandstanding over the "Axis of Evil" speech. Bygones. Forgotten. Only people the press dislikes are reminded of past mistakes.

The bigger question, the more honest question, is this: When was David Frum ever an important leader in the conservative movement? The "second thoughts" of a self-promoting scribbler hardly seems worthy of Newsweek's attention.

ADDED: Waste not, want not. I emailed this another blogger several days ago. It fits, so i might as well use it.

A couple of years ago i started calling Brooks old buddy Tucker Carlson a "reservation conservative." Brooks is an even better example of the breed. The Frum is bargaining for a slot.

Liberals love those kind of "conservatives". It lets them define both the liberal and conservative position on an issue. (If Brooks gets too out of line, a sharp look from MoDo will send him to his keyboard to make amends.) And if real conservatives don't get in line, resercons provide a nice club: "even David Brooks thinks that The Other McCain is crazy."

Speaking of The Other McCain, this post contains an incredible sociological analysis of Washington and the environment that produces resercons.

If National Review wanted to be interesting again, they'd make McCain their Red America correspondent in Washington.

Even better, The Atlantic should hire McCain to follow-up on this idea:

As an aside-- it would be interesting if a magazine like The Atlantic did a reverse Brooks. Send a "Red America writer" to do a red/blue comparison.