While I have frequently appreciated David Frum’s observations, neither I nor many other conservative bloggers and pundits would rank him among the top tier of conservative columnists and opinion leaders, those I deem the Olympians. And sometimes I think he resents that others do not include him in that number.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Frum’s a good columnist, sometimes very good, but not a great one. It seems almost that he agreed to do the recent cover essay for Newsweek badmouthing Rush Limbaugh primarily in order to get the attention that the great ones attract. But, in doing so, he curried the favor not of conservatives and those sympathetic to conservative ideas, but of those antagonistic to them.
Lately, he seems to have become a conservative contrarian who opposes primarily for the sake of opposing.
Those Olympians don’t always hold firm to conservative orthodoxy even when their own ideas and observations help shape it. Readers of this blog are well aware that I place Peggy Noonan in their number, comparing her to the goddess Athena. Others who join her in the Pantheon include Charles Krauthammer, most like the wise Apollo, with a gift for prophecy. While Victor Davis Hanson more closely resembles a muse, Clio whose bailiwick was history, than (he does) any of the Divine Twelve, he has clearly earned his place on the Olympus on punditry
There’s Michael Barone whose attention to detail calls to mind that of the divine craftsman Hephaestus, the hardest-working of the Olympians. The wit, wisdom and playful prose of Mark Steyn make him the Hermes of punditry. Rush himself could be compared to Dionysus, the last to enter the pantheon. For like that god of wine, the conservative talk show host appreciates, indeed delights in, pleasures associated with the appetite, that is, his love for good food and cigars.
George Will is like a Titan, one who reigned supreme in a previous era, but has seen been overthrown by the new generation of deities indicated above.
And just as there are other Greek deities, who did not sit in the high councils of Olympus, but still contribute to the divine work, so are their conservative columnists and pundits not among the Olympians of commentary who do good work. Perhaps, Frum would be less of a curmudgeon if he realized the nobility of being among their number.
Peggy Noonan is more like Hera… Jealous goddess who tries to sabotage new (demi)gods, all while insisting she knows what’s best for everyone.
Frumpy has a new website. I’m not sure if he left National Review or was fired, but it wasn’t because he was hired away by anyone else. He knows the mainstream media only pays attention to conservatives if they are badmouthing other conservatives or otherwise making Republicans look bad. John McCain, Andrew Sullivan, Pat Buchannan, Scott McClellan (FYI, if you ever forget McClellan’s name, simply Google “turncoat press secretary”) all the medias favorite conservatives illustrate this vividly. And like McClellan, he is attacking conservatives not because he has serious criticism, but to further his own career. (If his purpose were really to engage in serious conversation about conservatism, he wouldnt be going to Newsweek to do it). And while the Republican should remain a big tent party, self-aggrandizing turncoats like McClellan, Frumpy and Meghan with an “h” McCain are precisely the dead weight we should drop.
I actually had the pleasure of eviscerating the little weasel on air on the Michael Medved show. It was quite fun.
Maybe Frum = Sisyphus, a mere mortal condemned to eternal frustration for his hubris in believing he was as clever as the gods.
I personally enjoy Charles Krauthammer the best of all of those, I look forward to reading his articles best of all.
He is very much prone to Apollo rationality…
Darkeyed, he is indeed!
Uh, GPW, I wonder if your love of mythology hasn’t gotten the better of you here.
Maybe it has, Classical Liberal Dave, maybe it has. 🙂
As a Greek, I have to agree with some of the comments here – but not all of them. My 12 Olympians would be as follows:
1. Zeus = Rush Limbaugh (who else?)
2. Poseidon = Sean Hannity (2nd to Zeus in eminence)
3. Hades = Michael Savage (dark, gloomy and prone to unseemly outbursts)
4. Hera = Peggy Noonan (H/T to DoDoGuRu at #1)
5. Aphrodite = Michelle Malkin (Michelle has definitely got the looks and charisma)
6. Athena = Tammy Bruce (a wise woman who will not be compromised by any man – plus, she is also “of man only,” not woman)
7. Artemis = Ann Coulter (smart, fierce warrior goddess who is good with a bow and arrow and makes men quake in their boots)
8. Apollo = Mark Steyn (in contrast to Dan’s choice, I pick Steyn because he, like Apollo, was the “most handsome” of the gods and I can see a similarity in tactics with him and Ann Coulter – since Apollo and Artemis were twins)
9. Hermes = Rich Lowry (Apollo’s mischievous little brother – and I can picture Rich being just the type to pull it off)
10. Hephaestion = Michael Barone (ok, Dan, you got this one)
11. Demeter = Laura Ingraham (earth-mother, nurturing, soul-searching type who also comforts in time of distress)
12. Dionysus = David Limbaugh (son – or in this case, brother – of Zeus but not quite there yet in terms of eminence)
Also, don’t forget there was an earlier deity in the Pantheon – Hestia, goddess of the hearth. As the “keeper of the conservative flame” and the nurturer for future generations, who else could it be but Phyllis Schlafly?
Okay, girls, take my comments and run with them.
Regards,
Peter H.