UPDATE AT END OF POST: Frum was on vulgarian Bill Maher's show less than two months ago.
The folks at CNN sure are interested in Rush Limbaugh's sex life.
Two days after the host of Piers Morgan Tonight chatted with magician Penn Jillette about watching the talk radio host have sex, David Frum - billed as one of the network's "conservative" analysts - said on Sunday's Reliable Sources, "I think it would be a nice gesture if [Limbaugh] were to send Sandra Fluke one of his sex tapes" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Joining us now to talk about the echoes of this media maelstrom and the twist in the presidential campaign: Julie Mason, host of Sirius XM Radio's "The Press Pool"; David Frum, contributor for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast," and an analyst for CNN; and Dana Milbank, columnist for "The Washington Post."
David Frum, you are a conservative who has been critical of Rush Limbaugh. I mean, this is part of what he does. He likes to stoke outrage and draw attention by saying things that are a bit over the line.
This time, with the president of the United States calling this young woman, it seems to have sparked a greater than usual furor.
DAVID FRUM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, what is good for Rush Limbaugh is not necessarily what is good for the Republican Party. But he has been able to discipline the party so that he goes from rating success to rating success. But it leaves the party behind him in smoking ruin because there are women all across America and husbands of women and fathers of women and brothers of women and sons of women who respond to this by saying I think that's about the worst thing I have ever heard on radio.
But I did have one constructive suggestion. There's one further clip that Rush that you didn't have time for where Rush Limbaugh invited Susan -- I'm sorry, Sandra fluke to post a sex tape of herself on the Internet.
KURTZ: Yes.
FRUM: Now, he's issued a kind of grudging apology on his Web site. I think it would be a nice gesture if he were to send Sandra Fluke one of his sex tapes.
(LAUGHTER)
JULIE MASON, SIRIUS XM RADIO: Something America does not need.
KURTZ: You have woken us up this Sunday morning.
Sound like a conservative to you?
Maybe even better, Frum moments later criticized Limbaugh's apology while praising - wait for it! - David Letterman and Ed Schultz:
FRUM: You know, it was about the most graceless apology ever.
KURTZ: Ever?
MASON: Yes.
FRUM: It is interesting to contrast that with the heartfelt, on air, in person apologies delivered by David Letterman and Ed Schultz. David Letterman, after he said -- he told an ugly joke about one of Sarah Palin's children, he was on there for seven minutes on his own show in his own voice. Not written by a publicist.
Ed Schultz said a disgraceful thing on his radio program. KURTZ: He used the word slut --
FRUM: About Laura.
KURTZ: -- referring to Laura Ingraham.
FRUM: Yes, it was horrible.
KURTZ: MSNBC suspended him, and he --
FRUM: He didn't say it on MSNBC.
KURTZ: He said on the radio.
This is something that has the -- it actually repeats a lot of the accusations. It apologizes for word choice, but I mean, the suggestion that maybe should have used a more refined word to describe this woman, but the --
MASON: Simply his choice of words.
FRUM: Exactly. It's a whole technical vocabulary that he might have used. It was graceless, and I think it's going to -- that's why it's going to linger. And even if it doesn't linger for him, it's going to linger for all those conservatives out there who now are in a position having to take a stance on this which is not a thing that Republicans want to be doing.
And this is why Frum is a "conservative" networks such as CNN love.
The reality is he's about as close to being a conservative as I am a woman, but because he worked for the Bush administration and is willing to bash folks on the right at every turn, he's beloved by liberal media outlets.
What's not to love about a so-called Republican who in the course of a few minutes will bash Rush Limbaugh while praising Ed Schultz?
With this performance, CNN will probably give him a raise.
*****Update: If David Frum was so offended by Limbaugh calling Fluke a slut, why did he appear on Bill Maher's HBO program after the host called former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin a "dumb twat" and a "cunt"?
