Questions for David Frum - Right Hand Man

Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON

As a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former speechwriter for President Bush, you’re surprisingly critical of him in your new book, claiming he has appointed “consistently mediocre people” to important jobs and made “a shambles” of the Iraq war. Do you see the book as a mea culpa?

No. Mea culpa is a kind of hand-wringing, breast-beating, woe-is-me attitude that I don’t share. What I am saying is that there is exhaustion, intellectual exhaustion on the part of Republicansand conservatives.

And that their long winning streak in Congress has ended?

What I am terrified of is that the Republican Party is heading into a period of political defeat. We lost the election in 2006. I am terrified that we can lose the election in 2008. We can lose in 2012, and it will take us half a dozen years to do the rethinking we need to do.

That is the theme of your new book, “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again,” in which you propose that Republicans line up behind timelierissues — like a carbon tax to encourage innovation in clean power.

I’m a latecomer to the environmental issue, which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies, voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issuesof the spirit, including the environment. Republicans must respond to that.

Why are you so tough on Laurie David in your book, accusing her of “environmental hypocrisy” because she travels by private jet?

We are all terribly sensitive when a politician preaches one version of sexual morality and practices another. Why should we not expect self-designated environmental leaders to practicewhat they preach?

Whom do you support for president in 2008?

I’m a senior policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani.

What are you advising him to do?

For that I signed a nondisclosure agreement.

You’ve been called Mr. Axis of Evil, in reference to a phrase you coined for President Bush during your speechwriting days.

I collaborated on the phrase “axis of evil.”

How many speechwriters do you need to come up with a three-word phrase?

I wrote the first draft of what became that section of the 2002 State of the Union address and referred to terrorist groups and extremist governments as forming an “axis of hatred.” In the revision process, my colleagues altered that phrase to “axis of evil.”

How did you, as a native Canadian, end up working in the White House?

The same papers that allow you to work at Taco Bell allow you to work at the White House. I filed my naturalization papers after 9/11 and took the oath forcitizenship on Sept. 11, 2007.

Your mother, Barbara Frum, was a well-known Canadian journalist and broadcaster for the CBC whose politics were left of center. What did she think of your views?

She certainly didn’t agree with my politics. But her example is one of my profoundest inspirations. My mother cared more about how you reasoned than aboutthe conclusions you reached.

I see there’s a Barbara Frum Library in Toronto. Isn’t it unusual for a public library to be named after a journalist?

The building was donated by my father to the city, as part of a redevelopment project he was undertaking. The city proposed to name it after my mother. Shewas on a postage stamp too.

How did that happen? Don’t tell me your Dad donated a post office to Toronto?

No. My mom was truly an iconic figure, a great journalist and a pioneering woman who died at 54 of cancer without ever having revealed to viewers that she was ill.

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions?

I usually make them at Rosh Hashana. This year: not to be pessimistic.

But you’re fairly pessimistic about the state of the Republican Party.

I didn’t say I always keep my resolutions.