The Spirit of David Frum Hacks Breitbart Twitter Feed
Andrew Breitbart’s Twitter feed was hacked tonight. The post went up less than an hour ago. It has since been removed but can still be seen on the timeline:
It’s obviously a spammer and not David Frum. So why do I mention David Frum in the headline?
The principle is this: a man is dead, but there is a buck to be made. So, we take the fact that there are a lot of eyeballs on this issue, and we put up something that has zero content, but that might make us some money. And so we attempt to cynically profit from a man’s death.
In a similar manner, David Frum tried to profit, financially but also in terms of his self-image, from Andrew Breitbart’s recent death. Frum tried (and miserably failed) to elevate himself at the expense of a man who had not been dead for 24 hours, with distortions that are patently at odds with the actual man himself.
I’m not going to link Frum’s piece, and I’m not going to quote it. It’s linked and quoted in Mickey Kaus’s piece yesterday and in Michael Walsh’s post at The Corner.
Like many others, Frum foisted upon his eager audience of leftists and losers a phony picture of Andrew — one that sharply contrasted with the far more accurate picture of him painted by people like Kaus, Walsh, and myself — who actually knew him. Mickey said of Andrew: “I would go so far as to say that Breitbart had an instinctive honesty–pretty much the opposite of what Frum charges.” That is exactly right. And as Michael observes: “As for the implicit charge of racism — these days, the last refuge of a scoundrel — that is prima facie absurd.” Also quite true.
Frum’s claim that Andrew was a dishonest racist, published the day we learned Andrew had died, was little different than a spammer who tries to make money by posting his crap product on a dead man’s Twitter feed. Frum is simply spamming the Internet with the vision of himself as Reasonable Conservative, and the occasion of Andrew’s death was simply a convenient moment for Frum to advance that pointless and stupid (but self-serving) message. Frum’s piece is an example of psychopathy — an utter lack of empathy in the cause of advancing one’s personal interests. I have chosen that word carefully and it is exactly what I mean.
In fact, I believe Frum is actually worse than the spammer. The spammer says: buy my product, it will help you lose weight, and I will make money. Frum says: buy my vision of myself as the One True Reasonable Conservative, it will help you feel good about myself . . . and I will make money. And I will feel good about myself.
But a spammer just irritates. Frum, by criticizing Andrew thoughtlessly and unfairly hours after his death, acts as a ghoulish predator who feasts on the remains of a fresh body for personal gain.
What must go through Frum’s mind, or the mind of Matt Yglesias, when they write things like this? “Somewhere, a widow and her children may stumble across my post, and see a distorted view of a man they loved, who was at the center of my life. But didn’t you hear what I said? I will feel good about myself!”
Over the years, as I have met more and more people in person about whom I had previously read things, I have come to realize that often the things you read are just flatly wrong.
And during my life I have watched other people try to rewrite my life story in front of my eyes, and even in life it’s a difficult thing to fight. It’s tremendously depressing to know that it will happen again when I die, and I won’t even have the ability to fight it.
I hope I still have friends who will.
But ultimately the work and the man have to speak for themselves. And Andrew and his work did. If someone chooses to distort him and his life’s work — to rewrite another’s story to elevate their own — that is, I have to believe, a losing strategy.
Which is why Ace says:
David Frum exceeded Andrew Breitbart in one measure only, span of life.
But not in life.
David Frum will die as he lived, gray, timid, small, spiteful, cramped in thought and bent in spirit, slender of talent and obese in self-regard, unloved, unnoticed, unremembered and unread.
. . . .
As I type this, Breitbart is more alive than David Frum has ever been.
I doubt very much that will change as the years march on.
It is the nature of the rat to envy the lion.
We should not fault the rat overly for this. For what else can the rat do?
But we should say that there are lions, and there are rats. And they are easily distinguishable.
And they are as different from each other as the sun is from the mirror that reflects it.
Scavengers have their place. They serve a function.
But scavengers know their place.
And scavengers only challenge the lion when it lies, safely, dead.
Take a look again the screenshot of the message from the spammer who hopped onto Andrew Breitbart’s Twitter feed to make a buck from Andrew’s death.
David Frum has less honor than that.
UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit for the link. New readers, please bookmark the site! If you missed my post with my personal memories of Breitbart, please read it here. Trust me, my post is far more accurate a portrait than the crap spewed by Frum.
That’s how it felt with Yglesias. He started saying the world was a better place, and then in the predictable furor of response he noted he was going to get more attention now for his book. He was explicit about that.
Frum was far nastier about it though. Challenging a man’s integrity when he isn’t around to respond, on the day of his death, with this stale racism garbage… what a thing to do to Breitbart’s family, friends, and fans. What a think to do.
Breitbart changed the world. He changed minds. He has inspired many… perhaps millions, to carry on his work. Frum and the rest of these attention seekers… all they did was expose their lack of honor.
Dustin (401f3a) — 3/3/2012 @ 2:27 pmAs Ann Coulter said on Hannity last night, “I must say it’s like it’s Andrew Breitbart’s last trick… He loved ginning up liberals…he played this jiu jitsu with them, as do I, but he got them to say the most shocking things and that’s why most people like me who follow him on Twitter had to turn off the re-tweet function because you’d open up your Twitter page and be full of things that rhyme with ‘mockbucker’… But he loved it, and here even here in death he shows liberals in their true colors.”
Colonel Haiku (b7499c) — 3/3/2012 @ 2:41 pmThe reaction of the left to A.B.’s untimely death is telling. Such seething hatred from the self-proclaimed guardians of tolerance shows them for what they are. Absolute pricks.
sickofrinos (44de53) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:04 pmThe spammer is more honest than Frum.
JD (ddebbb) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:06 pmFrum was also the first to whore out his experience in the Bush admin for a book deal
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:07 pmFrum reminds me of the (Churchill?) quote: “you can rat, but you can’t re-rat”
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:22 pmI like Ace’s comment, Patterico: Mr. Breitbart is more alive now than Mr. Frum will ever be.
You know what else? I suspect that Mr. Breitbart had more friends, and more respect from his enemies than Mr. Frum.
The science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle detests Mr. Frum, and refers to him as “the egregious Frum.”
Absolute truth.
Thanks again, Patterico, for defending the honor of a good man from truly despicable people.
Simon Jester (4ad948) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:23 pmICYMI, Matt Welch wrote a typically perceptive and nuanced piece about Breitbart, who was his friend.
It was always funny to many of his friends that Andrew Breitbart, after he became famous, was probably most famous for being a 100 percent polarizing political lightning rod. The reason that was funny was two-fold: He didn’t actually have strong philosophical/policy beliefs – at all – and he was always perfectly comfortable and perfectly welcome in ideologically and culturally diverse settings.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (aee79b) — 3/3/2012 @ 3:59 pmI was going to leave a quote comparing Frum to Fredo from the Godfather but he isn’t actually “in the family”.
The media just says he is “in the family” so they can look fair to rubes and “uninformed voters”.
Noodles (3681c4) — 3/3/2012 @ 4:47 pmNo, that was probably Paul O’Neill with Susskind as his amanuensis, an interesting detail is at least one detail in every one of his books are wrong, the map of the oil concessions in Iraq, pointed to the
narciso (87e966) — 3/3/2012 @ 5:41 pmnon-idealistic reason for the opposition to Iraq,
another book had the details of one of the attempted
plots wrong, and apparently misrepresented the results of an interrogation, yet another alleged
a CIA official had ‘forged’ a document without good
evidence,
“Fastest and most efficient way to remove toxins & lose weight” — I thought the spam was a creepy comment saying that dying was the most efficient way to remove toxins & lose weight.
Teri (881084) — 3/3/2012 @ 6:46 pmPatrick:
There are few people who are blessed with the experiences that you have been given. You have, over the years, been given a glimpse behind the curtain of human nature to see the mechanisms at work … the honest good and the dark and despicable.
And you know the reasons why.
If you understand the intent and motivations of the man, you know the man.
Patrick, you are a good man. You have many friends who will.
And so does Andrew, may God rest his soul in peace.
Anita Busch (a025dd) — 3/3/2012 @ 7:34 pmWe understand Andrew Breitbart’s spirit and legacy, and I think this letter from an Instapundit reader captures it: Be Breitbart.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:07 pmHow did Frum ever get peoples’ ear in the first place? I mean, why does anyone even pay attention to what he says any more than people pay any attention to what Arnie Schwartz up the street from me says?
I’ve never seen Frum as any particular authority on anything. He has never seemed to have had any particularly amazing insights. He seems to simply be something like McCain in that he is someone who claims to be a Republican whose base in popularity is that he always complains about Republicans. That’s the only thing I can find that he has ever done. His entire justification for existence seems to be that he criticizes Republicans yet calls himself one.
It’s ridiculous.
crosspatch (6adcc9) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:13 pmFrum’s shelf life in the blogosphere is coming to a close; there’s only so much time that a hack such as he can dine out on being “Bush’s speechwriter”. He will be driving through someone’s neighborhood in an ice cream truck before too long.
Plus, as someone’s probably told him, “Being dumb, fat and Canadian is no way to go through life, son.”
Anna Lemma (901a39) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:28 pmAs has been pointed out pretty much everywhere you can take the measure of a man by the enemies he makes. I suggest the same applies to the friends he has. If you can stand the blood pressure spike go read the comments on a typical Frum post. You would think you were at Democratic Underground. His following in the comments now consists of almost completely Leftists – praising Frum. Why is it he is considered anything other than a Progressive any more?
Boyd (bc5d86) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:46 pmPeople always use hyperbole when they eulogize a friend, but even though I never met Breitbart I keep going back to something in my mind. We always think of the US Founding Fathers as the faces on statues and currency, bigger than life. But they were regular guys, farmers and bankers that saw something horribly wrong and said “No Effing Way”. They wanted a better world for their children and fought against the wrongs that faced them. They lived in a time when the big issues were settled with rifles. They picked up their rifles – and they won.
Breitbart lived in a different time where the battles are fought in communications media. He picked up his (electronic) rifle and fought. He won battles but left us before the outcome of the war was known. He was a man of a different era but had he been alive in the late 18th Century I have no doubt he would have been in the thick of the American Revolution. He would have given rousing speeches like Patrick Henry – and the minutes of the Constitution Convention would have included a lot more dirty jokes. RIP Andrew and God be with your family.
Kaisersoze (298188) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:49 pmHe’s Charles Johnson without the bicycle, it’s a wonder he hasn’t gone over to the Huffington Post,
narciso (87e966) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:51 pm‘that wretched hive of scum and villainy’ which
Breitbart brought into being,
FRUM CAVED IN WHEN HE WAS ATTACKED BY THE LEFT FOR THE AXIS OF EVIL LINE AND FOR BEING AN AIDE TO DUBYA.
WHEN HE LEFT THE WH HE APPEASED THE LEFT TO GET GIGS.
BREITBART NEVER CAVED IN AND THEREFORE WAS A CONSTANT REMINDER THAT FRUM WAS A COWARD AND A KNAVE.
THAT’S WHY HE COULD’NT CONTAIN HIMSELF AND HAD TO ATTACK ANDREW.
reliapundit (651bce) — 3/3/2012 @ 8:54 pm“it’s a wonder he hasn’t gone over to the Huffington Post”
He’d have absolutely no value if he were to do that. The only thing that provides him with any base of “power” (if you can call it that) is the novelty of a Republican who criticizes Republicans. What he does as affirms and validates what those on the left think. So they point to Frum and say “Hey, we must be right, here’s a guy who says so and he’s a Republican!” so they hold him up as some sort of spectacle because he validates their world view. If he were to “come out” as a progressive, suddenly he would have no value at all. He would be just another voice in a mass of similar voices. As long as he claims he is a Republican, he will be the darling of the left.
Same with McCain. As long as McCain is criticizing the Republicans, the press holds him up as some sort of “Maverick”. The moment he BECOMES that establishment, though, his entire base of power with the liberal media suddenly evaporates and they now have to find someone else. As long as Frum A: never amounts to anything politically and B: never recants as a Republican, he will always have a job publishing screed after tedious screed criticizing the Republican party or some prominent Republican.
In other words, he knows which side of his bread has the butter.
crosspatch (6adcc9) — 3/3/2012 @ 9:02 pmJust thank you for this post. You are one of the big islands in the archipelago of good guys. We now have an additional reason to defeat SCOAMF and his “team.” Thank you.
@ParisParamus (77eaba) — 3/3/2012 @ 9:57 pmDavid’ mother Barbara Frum, was a liberal broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. She was a real POS! David reminds me of her!
Keaton (ab14f0) — 3/3/2012 @ 10:12 pma CBC hoochie is just like a National Soros Radio hoochie except she doesn’t own a razor
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 3/3/2012 @ 10:14 pm#18, Charles who?
crosspatch (6adcc9) — 3/3/2012 @ 10:17 pmKudos to Patterico and Ace.
Metaphorically, I just peered over my fence to Frump’s desk; nothing remains but a scarred, scorched, and smoking crater.
Well Done…
skatzbert (dd3ca5) — 3/3/2012 @ 10:42 pmIs it wrong that I intend to spit on Frum the next time he is in town?
John (bf7609) — 3/3/2012 @ 11:27 pmonly if it’s at the expense of spitting on someone more worthy
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 3/3/2012 @ 11:32 pmA tarred and feathered frum, would be justice.
sickofrinos (44de53) — 3/3/2012 @ 11:39 pmFrum’s piece is an example of psychopathy — an utter lack of empathy in the cause of advancing one’s personal interests. I have chosen that word carefully and it is exactly what I mean.
I think you mean “sociopath,” not “psychopath.”
saintcroix (314ef5) — 3/4/2012 @ 4:55 amDear Sir, While he was not known to me personally, I FEEL as if he were. I am saddened by the death of Mr. Breitbart, and can only imagine how you,his family, and many personal friends must feel. My condolences for your loss.
jmh (e35c7d) — 3/4/2012 @ 8:18 amI understand that one of his children was quite young. May I suggest that you, or several “yous” collect the lovely tributes I have been reading, and put them in a book ( or dvd etc), to keep for the children? His family shared him with us ( willingly or not), and it might be a nice thing for them down the road to have. Again my condolences.
I live thousands of miles from Frum, and from where Andrew Breitbart lived. The only reason I have heard of Frum is that he is an unpleasant creature who said things about Mr Breitbart after his death that even I, as a distant reader of Mr Breitbart’s work, can tell are wrong. Those that knew Mr Breitbart must be bemused by Frum’s presumption.
I am saddened by Andrew Breitbart’s death. I feel he helped me personally. I have always been willing to stand and say to the socialist and say “no, you do not have the moral monopoly; what you say is not moral just because you and those you listen to say it is right. I am not immoral just because you say my views are wrong”. Andrew Breitbart showed me that many others do this too, every day, and that I am not alone even in a nation far too fearful of standing up to totalitarian bullies of statist socialism.
Frum, I only know of because of unpleasant things he said that are entirely contrary to what I know of Andrew Breitbart. So what do I think of him?
This is a very long way of saying that Ace is right.
Doubting Rich (ca0533) — 3/4/2012 @ 11:34 amI think you mean “sociopath,” not “psychopath.”
Comment by saintcroix — 3/4/2012 @ 4:55 am
— Forgetting (for a moment) your rudeness at quoting Patterico saying “it is exactly what I mean” and then responding with (and I paraphrase) “no it isn’t,” let’s look at the characteristics of a psychopath:
Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
Callousness; lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
— It would probably reflect well upon your character to apologize sooner rather than later.
Icy (cf507d) — 3/4/2012 @ 12:18 pmDear jmh,
All of Mr. Breitbart’s children were quite young. Their ages ranged from 12 to only 4. May their father’s memory always be a blessing to all of us, and may they live up to his example of courage and joie de vivre. He was a friend to many and a role model to multitudes, but a father only to them.
the permanent newbie (27d51f) — 3/4/2012 @ 2:59 pmI’ll be honest, I haven’t read any of those “establishment Republicans” that were so horrified by Sarah Palin (ewwww State School! yuk) that they went over to Obama in 2008… the spoilt wunderkind Frum, the soulless suck-up Brooks, or the faded ingenue Noonan. A pox on the lot of them. They’ll be wringing their hands and cleaving back to the President for the reasons they like him, which appear to be limited to his choice in tailors and ability to read platitudes off a teleprompter.
Note that two of the three at least made their names as professional speechwriters — those writers whose words can’t stand on their own but need some nabob’s title of nobility attached.
Frum’s vile attack on Breitbart, well, is about what one expects from that crowd. Still, it’s amazing he can get his tongue out of the President’s [anatomical reference deleted] to form a sentence these days.
Frum, Brooks, Noonan: those bylines are received as prowords for, “don’t need to read this.”
Kevin R.C. O'Brien (593903) — 3/4/2012 @ 5:59 pm