Frum learns that "you are either with us, or you are against us"

David Frum was fired from his job by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI.) 

Most Americans, in fact even most Republicans, will respond with "David who? and "What is AEI?" So, yes, this is mostly an "inside baseball" kind of an event!

Frum was the gifted (!) speechwriter who coined the phrase "Axis of Evil" for Bush.  But, Frum was not happy with that Warholian 15-minutes of fame.  Instead, he tried to cash in on that through his connections with the (neo)conservatives.

So, towards the tail end of the healthcare reform struggle, Frum read the tea leaves and figured that it was becoming the law of the land, with or without Republican participation.  So, he finds the nutcase Republican strategy to be faulty and has the audacity to express his views.

Well, Frum forgot the other line from Bush: "you are either with us, or you are against us."  His sponsors decided that he was not with them, and declared off with his head (well, metaphorically.)

I say that this is poetic justice.  After all, Frum was the same guy who questioned the patriotism of those who refused to support the Iraq War, and now that same logic was used to question how much of a conservative he really is.  Hilarious :)

Across the pond, The Times notes that:

Mr Frum posted his column within minutes of the Democrats securing the votes to pass health reform last weekend, condemning a Republican strategy of “no negotiations, no compromise, nothing”. He accused his party of trying to repeat its humiliation of President Clinton in 1994 while forgetting that Mr Obama won office with a larger proportion of the popular vote. “We went for all the marbles, we ended with none,” he wrote.

And soon after--within a matter of a couple of days--Frum lost his AEI salary:

On Tuesday The Wall Street Journal dismissed Mr Frum as “the media’s go-to basher of fellow Republicans” and attacked him for “peddling bad revisionist history that would have been even worse politics”. On Thursday he was offered the chance to stay on at the think-tank on a non-salaried basis. He declined.

Yes sir.  If you are not with us, you are against us.  Apparently the US is becoming a place where differing viewpoints are not tolerated (and this more so the case in universities, unfortunately!)  Anyway, the Times also notes:

mainstream figures including the standard-bearers of the Republican Establishment are being forced to the right by purity tests on key issues and a groundswell of Tea Party activism that moderates fear could marginalise the party in the long term.

I am all for the purity tests--let us get rid of 'em all.  In both parties.  Am tired of the politicians we have!