RSS Feed MenuAfter my dismissal from AEI Thursday, I posted in this space my letter of resignation. I declined television interviews, but I did speak to print journalists about the basic facts, in a way that expressed respect for AEI and its leadership.
I spent most of today flying from Washington to San Francisco and emerged from the plane to a fierce counter-attack, including an especially unpleasant piece from Charles Murray.
Let me respond here to some specific issues in this matter.
1) Was the firing political? Obviously I cannot enter into people’s minds, and at my termination lunch AEI President Arthur Brooks insisted that politics had nothing to do with the decision. So let’s just follow the time line. Waterloo piece is posted Sunday March 22. Wall Street Journal editorial denouncing me appears March 23. Summons to lunch arrives mid-morning of March 23. At lunch I am told that AEI wishes to terminate my salary, office, benefits, and research assistance. I am however at liberty to continue to consider myself part of the AEI family. I declined that offer and wrote a letter of resignation.
2) Was the firing in response to donor pressure? At lunch, Arthur Brooks explained that AEI was facing a new kind of donor environment, in which donors were becoming much more specific about where they wanted their money to go. Arthur expressed extreme personal distress at having to terminate me. It’s possible that those words were pro forma, and that my own affection for Arthur led me to attach more weight to them than I should have. It’s very strange that Charles Murray would denounce me as a liar because I wished to think better of my former boss!
3) Did AEI muzzle healthcare scholars? I fear that in reproducing in print a private conversation from some months ago, Bruce Bartlett made a transmission error. I did not report as fact that scholars were laboring under any restrictions. What I did say was that AEI was punching way below its weight in the healthcare debate. I wondered, not alleged, wondered, whether AEI scholars were constrained by fear of saying something that might get them into trouble. To repeat: this was something I asked many months ago in private conversation, not something I allege today in public debate.
4) Was I terminated for under-productivity? If you’ll believe that, you’ll believe anything. In seven years at AEI, I wrote 3 books, over 1000 newspaper and magazine articles, millions of words of web journalism. I have made more TV appearances, delivered more lectures than I even know how to count. (I’ll be delivering half dozen such lectures in China in the month of April as a guest of the US Department of State.)
I have written speeches on an unpaid basis for politicians I admire. I worked pro bono on a presidential nomination campaign. Then, there was the campaign to oppose Harriet Miers nomination. Does AEI seriously suggest that it fired the man who led the battle that made possible Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court because I didn’t pick up my snail mail often enough? That’s what they said to Politico.
As for Charles’ other suggestions, well, they point in a very different direction than he’d like. I did attend for example the 2009 World Forum, and was fiercely scolded by Lynne Cheney for my criticisms of Rush Limbaugh. This year I was not invited at all, despite having obtained for the conference some of its most distinguished international guests.
Charles acknowledges that he himself spends almost zero time on the AEI premises. If that’s a firing offense, I’ll see him at the soup kitchen.
UPDATE:
Finally, one last thought about my reply to AEI’s claims above. If it’s required that AEI scholars publish their online work at AEI’s own blog, why did Charles Murray post his remarks about on me on the Corner, instead of upon … AEI’s own blog?
ottovbvs // Mar 29, 2010 at 4:59 pm
sinz54 // Mar 29, 2010 at 4:46 pm
“I voted for Clinton twice. Are you surprised?’
…..We’re not talking about Clinton are we?….we’re talking about the Bush/Cheney and McCain/Palin abberations
” First of all, McCain was hardly an “incompetent.” He was a war hero, ”
…..That automatically makes him competent does it?….. versus the current evidence of his campaign management and selection of Palin?…..and as I said if they re-ran it tomorrow you’d still go for McCain/Palin which be both irrational and irresponsible….the rest is essentially a self delusory smoke screen to rationalize this fundamentally flawed position
CentristNYer // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:11 pm
sinz54 // Mar 29, 2010 at 4:46 pm
“First of all, McCain was hardly an “incompetent.” He was a war hero, a competent Senator; and he had earned a reputation as a dedicated reformer and a man of integrity.”
Unfortunately, McCain was no longer true to most of his principles after his defeat in 2000 as he spent the following eight years kissing the asses of the extreme right wing of the party, including Jerry Falwell, whom he’d rightly denounced as a zealot.
Of course, once he selected Sarah Palin, there was no longer any rationale that could justify a vote for McCain. “Country first”? Hardly.
chriscurrey // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:12 pm
sinz54 // Mar 29, 2010 at 4:46 pm ,
My father-in-law was a coal miner, are you going to work him until he is 75 years old? How about those who work in construction (a business i know very well since i spent 35 years in it) are you going to work them until 75? How about those in the assembly lines or those wiring the country from coast to coast? and so on and so forth.
Yeah, for sure, if you have a desk job, you could work until you are 100 i guess. But this is a negotiable point and reasonable people would arrive to a nice compromise.
However, here is where i have a serious problem with your stance: ” If some Johnnie Cochran wannabe manages to get him a lesser sentence, have a CIA assassin plug him before he walks out of that courtroom.” Killing a lawyer? Since when having a lawyer is a problem? Remember John Adams or was he a traitor? We have an adversarial judicial system and it is the best system in the world. If we don’t trust our court system, we are no longer a country my friend–and there is no difference between us and Zaire. Moreover, you know very well that we will never capture that guy alive. He will either kill himself or we will kill him. Why do you go for those extreme examples? When was the last time a terrorist walked in one of our courtroom and was released? This is the Sarah Palin-Jim Demint-Tom-Coburn crap that is killing our party. This is exactly the demagoguery and empty rhetoric that sucking the intellectual life out of our party.
Shawn Summers // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Chris, I think sinz was referring to Osama bin Laden as the one to be “plugged”. But I think the rest of your argument still applies.
TerryF98 // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:26 pm
” First of all, McCain was hardly an “incompetent.” He was a war hero, ”
Um he crashed 4 planes and nearly destroyed an aircraft carrier. Seems incompetent to me!
American Enterprise Institute: Now With 100% Less Frum « Around The Sphere // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:57 pm
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ottovbvs // Mar 29, 2010 at 7:02 pm
TerryF98 // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:26 pm
” First of all, McCain was hardly an “incompetent.” He was a war hero, ”
“Um he crashed 4 planes and nearly destroyed an aircraft carrier. Seems incompetent to me!”
…..Actually there is a slightly humorous side to Sinz’ attempt to prove his moderation and rationality by proudly boasting he voted for Clinton TWICE…..I’d have to say that for any Republican/ Independant to say he voted AGAINST Bush senior and FOR McCain/Palin implies a judgemental compass is that broken….for the record I voted for Pappa Bush in 88 and 92 and for Clinton in 96 all of which seem to me entirely rational choices in the context of the elections…..just as Obama was the rational choice in 2008
chriscurrey // Mar 29, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I have no problem saying that i voted for Obama. No problem whatsoever. It is not about defeating my party, but about keeping the White House as far as possible from Sarah Palin. Can you imagine that idiot in the White House?
NHWoman // Mar 29, 2010 at 7:59 pm
I love your stuff and I have been a Republican for a number of years but have been seriously thinking of going independent. There does not seem to be a place for centrists/moderates in this party. Prior to the RNC National Convention, I wrote to everyone I could think of and said, if you don’t make healthcare part of your platform, the other side will, and you won’t like their solutions. Twenty plus years ago I asked Bob Dole what we were going to do about the healthcare crisis in this country and he said we didn’t have a crisis; we had a problem. Since it was outpacing every other item on the CPI at the time, and since I live in an area where many people are self-employed or run small businesses that cannot get competitive prices on health insurance, I didn’t agree with him. It doesn’t matter; I’m just one voter. But how many like me, and like you, try to raise questions or bring up issues only to be brushed aside. My husband is also a Republican. One of us is against abortion, the other is not. One of us is against gay marriage, the other is not. So we don’t fit in the party because there is only one “right” opinion to have. They’re going to cannibalize if they keep it up.
sinz54 // Mar 30, 2010 at 10:08 am
chriscurrey: ” If some Johnnie Cochran wannabe manages to get him a lesser sentence, have a CIA assassin plug him before he walks out of that courtroom.” Killing a lawyer?
Not the lawyer–the terrorist defendant!
sinz54 // Mar 30, 2010 at 10:15 am
ottovbs:
I don’t have to rationalize my vote for McCain–though I was never enthusiastic about his platform in 2008. I had supported him for the GOP nomination in 2000, and I still wish he had beaten Bush and become President in 2001 instead of Bush.
I was making an entirely different point: That there is no way I can be a Democrat with the views I have. I’ve been kicked off of Democrat websites for trying to offer a different point of view. So be it. The hell with them.
Of course I had problems with Sarah Palin. I do NOT consider her a nut, just terribly ignorant. I had the same problem with Dan Quayle. But I voted for Bush 41 despite my problems with his running mate, and I do not regret my vote. Especially given who his opponent was. Running mates never matter much. I’m sure you recall what Garner said about the worth of the Vice Presidency.
So I remain a registered Independent who hopes for a GOP revival, so that I will once again have candidates I can vote for enthusiastically.
One more thing.
You have absorbed the Democrat mindset that anyone who is right-of-center must be delusional. When the Dems were out of power, they said “Dissent is patriotic.” Now that they’re in power, they (and you) are saying “Dissent is delusional.”
But they should remember that times change.
I’m a big fan of vengeance.
barrem01 // Mar 31, 2010 at 11:24 am
This is my first time at this blog. I’m surprised at two trends I see in the comments. 1) Impassioned yet reasonable arguments about the shift in the Republican Party platform, 2) These same reasonable people “opting out” and registering Independent. As a Democrat, I know too well how embarrassing it can be to be tarred with the brush of my party affiliation. But if smart Republicans abandon the party, who will vote in your primaries? When your party gets taken over by zealots, it’s your responsibility to fight back. You guys aren’t quiters, are you? Don’t get me wrong, if your party has moved so far to the right that you feel more comfortable in the Democratic camp than you do with the GOP, come on over, you are welcome. But if the real core Republican values: financial prudence, (not the penny wise – pound foolish, drown the government in the bathtub rhetoric you hear so often) strong national defense, pro-business environment, strong personal responsibility, tough on crime; if these are the values you hold most dear, stick up for them. Don’t quit, steer your party back to reason. I’ll do what I can to do the same for mine. The nation works best when rational voices from both sides chose the best possible compromise.
Erick Erickson: Baby Blowhard | FrumForum // Apr 1, 2010 at 6:19 pm
[...] This is, of course, glaringly untrue, and indeed easily checkably untrue. I didn’t say any such thing, Charles Murray did. I answered Charles Murray here. [...]
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