Frum Ignores Inquiries, Prefers To Attack Maddow’s News Style


Damn! David Frum, who once made money writing speeches for President George W. Bush, turned the tables on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night.

Hoping to discuss the apparent disorganization within the Republican party, Maddow asked Frum to explain his “reservations” on the John McCain’s campaign. Rather than addressing Maddow’s question, Frum comes out with this:

You were talking throughout the show about the matter of tone in our politics, and yet I think we are seeing an intensification of some of the ugliness of tone that has been a feature of American politics in the past 8 years. This show unfortunately is itself an example of that problem, with its heavy sarcasm and snearing and disregard for a lot of the substantive issues that are important… We’re all going to have to do better than we’ve been doing, including in the past 40 minutes.

Obviously caught off guard, Maddow wonders if Frum actually thinks her tone can be compared to some of the vitriol unleashing against Barack Obama.

Slick, slimy Frum replies, “I don’t think that’s an important question. I think the question is, given the small plate of responsibility that you personally have, how do you manage that responsibility?”

Maddow’s not buying his bullshit and the two get into a debate on what Maddow calls the “false equivalence” that has saturated our political culture. For example, comparing McCain’s involvement with the Keating Five to Obama’s friendship with William Ayers.

In the end, they agree to disagree: Frum prefers petrified discourse, while Maddow appreciates a little fun. Guess which side we took…

Check out the video, after the jump…

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