Entries

The Good Fight

In Defense of the House Republicans Was it worth it? Was it worth losing five Republican congressmen in 1998 and risking more in 2000, consuming a year of the nation's time, dragging dozens of unwilling figures into the glare of publicity, and depressing the party's poll numbers, all in an …

Written by David Frum on Monday February 8, 1999

Winners And Losers In The American Midterm Elections

Clinton and Bush did well, unlike Gingrich and Gore There were two big winners of Tuesday's U.S. election and two big losers. The winners: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The losers: Newt Gingrich and Al Gore. Mr. Clinton is a winner because the election result has quashed virtually …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 1, 1998

The Triumph Of Clintonism

There's no blinking the truth: Campaign '98 was not only a bad Republican defeat, it was a personal triumph for the president. Some happy-talk Republicans will want of course to deny the magnitude of the president's victory. They will point to the exit polls showing that voters still disapprove of …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 1, 1998

The Cabinet Clinton Deserves

"Bill Clinton's problem is not a party problem, it is not a New Democratic problem, it's a Clinton problem." That's Elaine Kamarck, a former Gore staffer now decamped to Harvard, as quoted in the New Republic last week, and hers is a line we are very likely to hear repeated more and more …

Written by David Frum on Monday October 12, 1998

Let's Not Get Too Choked Up Over The Death Of Socialism

A faith that once moved millions has gone the way of Albigensianism 'The biggest intellectual event of the 20th century is the death of socialism.' When the neo-conservative intellectual Irving Kristol first offered that observation in the mid-1970s, it sounded almost perverse. But of course …

Written by David Frum on Saturday August 29, 1998

Revisionism And The Reference Books

Politically correct editors put their own slant on history Dictionaries, books of quotations, encyclopedias: it's impossible to be a journalist without them. It's noon, the editor is on the phone demanding copy, and there you are, desperately trying to remember who came first, Charles Tupper or …

Written by David Frum on Thursday August 20, 1998

Price-fixing In The Name Of Equality

The market can't be wrong about wages 'OTTAWA, 1999 -- A federal agricultural tribunal today compensated Canada's dairy farmers for years of underpricing of milk. The tribunal found cow's milk has for decades been priced more cheaply than goat's milk, notwithstanding that both are equally high in …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday August 18, 1998

Ah, The Summertime Joys Of A Cold, Impersonal Roadside Motel

Who needs banana fritters and forced chit-chat at a cutesy-poo B&B? 'Click here for a note from Humphrey, the world's favorite inn cat.' That, I'm very sorry to say, is an actual link on the Web site of a bed and breakfast on the way to my in-laws' cottage. Every year around this time my wife …

Written by David Frum on Saturday August 1, 1998

Execu-mom Vs. House-husband

Modern morality tale A modern conundrum, from the New York Times: Alice Hector is a very successful lawyer at a high-powered firm in Miami. She had two children by her first marriage. After it broke up, she took the advice that feminists nowaday often give to older, richer women: she …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday July 21, 1998

How Millionaires Get That Way

DATELINE: WASHINGTON The millionaires next door? To me, Donald and Mildred Othmer -- the "unassuming" Brooklyn couple who recently left a staggering $800 million estate to charity -- were the millionaires in the basement. In the week since reports were published about the immense fortune …

Written by David Frum on Thursday July 16, 1998

Bill Gates -- A Rockefeller For The '90s

Parallels in competition practices are striking Two great powers are girding for war. No, not India and China; the U.S. and Microsoft. After years of threatening to do so, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft chieftain Bill Gates for monopolizing …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday May 19, 1998

In The Aftermath Of Monicagate Hillary Is Once Again Ascendant

Clinton pays a price for his wife's support First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is feeling frisky. Last Wednesday, she made news with a bold break from U.S. Middle East policy. Speaking by satellite to a gathering of young Israeli Jews and Arabs, she declared: 'It would be in the long-term …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday May 12, 1998

Subway Shovers Do Not Appear Out Of Nowhere

Mental Health Act keeps lunatics on Toronto's streets Last Friday, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, someone attempted to murder my wife. Quite literally. Danielle had just stepped off a westbound train at Toronto's St. George subway station and was walking toward the stairs. The train she …

Written by David Frum on Saturday March 28, 1998

What The Elephant Forgot

Four years ago, the Republicans won a major Congressional victory by promising large and important reforms in the operation of the Federal Government. Four years later, they are hoping to hold onto their majority by refraining from doing anything at all. A friend of mine recently ran for office on …

Written by David Frum on Monday March 23, 1998

Anthony Lewis: The President Must Go

Those of us who remember the stirring attacks on presidential lawlessness during Watergate have been startled by the silence from one-time upholders of the rule of law in the face of lawlessness by the Clinton administration. Has something changed between 1998 and 1973? Puzzled, we looked up some …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 18, 1998

Clinton's Personal Misconduct Behind Bungled Iraq Business

Another president in his situation could have rallied support for his cause The United Nations-brokered deal with Iraq is the worst catastrophe for U.S. foreign policy since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. Over the past few months, Saddam Hussein has violated his sworn commitments and obstruct…

Written by David Frum on Saturday February 28, 1998

A Generation On Trial

Ninety years ago, Max Beerbohm drew a series of cartoons titled "The Young Self Meets the Old Self" about the strange twists in the lives of the famous and near-famous of his day. Max, we miss you now! A generation of young liberals who were jolted into political activism by presidential lying are …

Written by David Frum on Monday February 16, 1998

Our Taste For Saccharine-style Music Enough To Make You Cry

Candle in the Wind is the single most played song at British funerals Sometimes the small newspaper stories tell us more about reality than the big ones. Take this little news bulletin from London for example: According to a survey by the Independent newspaper, Elton John's rewrite of 'Candle in …

Written by David Frum on Saturday January 31, 1998

How Roe Vs. Wade Changed Our Lives

U.S. case introduced a new approach to human rights Canada is like a jelly fish: its vital organs are outside its own body. Peter Brimelow made that observation in his great study of Canada, The Patriot Game. What he meant was the most important events in Canada's intellectual and cultural …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 20, 1998

Israeli PM Unfairly Cast As Villain

Netanyahu's hands are clean DATELINE: Portugal. The first leader in the country's history to be chosen in a wide-open democratic election is fighting for his political life, after the chief of a small and notoriously patronage-hungry faction within the governing coalition resigned to protest …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 6, 1998