Whoa. An exchange between the two over an article of David's that Hugh said misstated his views on the NY-23:
HH: I’m calling you out because you drove off of an on-ramp, you drove off of the highway, you ran by, sideswiped me, left your readers to believe that I was a hypocrite, because whether or not you intended it, it’s…I got calls on the radio saying, ‘why does David Frum think you’re a hypocrite?’ And it’s because you wrote this sloppily, you did no research, you can’t back it up, you didn’t bother to call me. In fact, it is the worst kind of drive-by punditry that I have seen in a long time from you.
DF: All right, I really don’t appreciate that.
HH: Ha!
DF: And I have to say, if you’re going to put it that way, that really is an act of astounding vanity. The point is not to make any point about you personally, It was to use your words to say here is a goof. It is presented as a joke. I did not use a word like hypocrisy at all. And I didn’t…and by the way, in the body of the article, I make the point that the people who support Hoffman and the people who support Daggett both have a point. They both have to be included in the party. And I’m not doing this as a slam. I’m not doing this as a criticism. I’m saying that we have got, we are very ready in the Republican and conservative world to broaden the party to the right. We’re not very ready to broaden the party to the middle. And here, I use your words, which were very ferocious on the subject of Daggett. I wasn’t accusing you of doing anything wrong. I was using them as a way to make a point.
HH: Well, you say, “From the point of view of most Republican commenters online and on the air,” after you’ve just quoted me, “party loyalty is a highly variable principle,” which by the way implies hypocrisy. It is not a highly variable principle for me. It is for me, always, you vote for the most conservative person who has a chance of winning, and you support the party nominee unless, like Lincoln Chaffee, the only time I have never, not supported a party nominee. They have nothing in common. And you know, David, if you’re going to write this kind of stuff, you’ve got to be more careful. This is slapstick.
DF: I…no, I’m sorry. Well…
HH: This is absolutely irresponsible to leave your readers thinking that I was in favor of Doug Hoffman, and against Chris Daggett, and hypocritical in the process. It is really irresponsible of you.
DF: Well, if you’re going to use that kind of tone, and I’ll say this, actually, the column is written extremely precisely. And it did not suggest that you supported any candidate in the 23rd, and it said nothing about your views about that. So it is exactly, accurately written, if we’re going to be precise about it.
