David Frum doesn't have many friends left at NRO

It appears that way. David Frum has been very busy lately, making the talk show rounds and discussing his dislike for Rush Limbaugh. What I find interesting is how the public support for him at NRO has faded and many have openly argued against his views.

After Frum left NRO, he still had many friends who would link to his new website and bring his articles up as topics of discussion. But his recent harsh criticism of Limbaugh, including personal insults, has made him lose even his staunchest holdout supporters. The last straw seems to be that he wrote an article for the current issue of Newsweek, flinging more personal insults at Limbaugh about his appearance and past drug abuse. But probably the most constroversial aspect was the Newsweek cover - a photo of Limbaugh - menacing, where they added tape over his mouth and the word "ENOUGH!" written over the tape.

The image of a person with tape over their mouth is horrifying. It is the graphic representation of denying someone their basic human right to use their voice. I'm surprised an editor let it through. This particular photo, in context, is one that discourages a political discourse of differing opinions. I would even go so far to say that it disallows free speech. A publication, discouraging free speech. No wonder newspapers all over the country are going bankrupt.

Frum's article being the force behind the cover photo is what I believe made some of his friends at NRO publicly distance themselves from his views. Frum also appeared on Chris Matthews' show and allegedly claimed that Limbaugh is racist, or has racist tendencies. At NRO many statements of "David Frum is a great friend of mine, but..." are posted. And yesterday, Andy McCarthy wrote probably the most scathing criticism I've ever read there. This gives me hope that they're not as quick to embrace moderate-conservatism as I thought.

Here are a few articles where I noticed that they finally broke with Frum:

Frum, Rush, Rudy [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Congratulations David Frum [Andy McCarthy]

The Rush Slow Crawl To Judgment [Jonah Goldberg]

Re: The "They did it" presidency [Mark Steyn] (at the end)

That Newsweek Cover [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Re: That Newsweek Cover [Mark Steyn]

The Rush wars [Mark Steyn]

Rush on Our Minds [Jay Nordlinger]