David Frum

David Frum @davidfrum

If you read "Profiles in Courage" as a series of essays on the theme of respect for the conservative white South, you can better understand why Kennedy published it as he sought the Democratic VP nomination in 1956. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

We've developed an etiquette that presidents need to speak as if SCOTUS seats were awarded on the same basis as, say, Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. Maybe Joe Biden should have followed that etiquette. But presidents don't *think* that way about the court. Never have. Never will. END — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

But Lamar's career can deliver a humbling caution against the delusion that the Supreme Court is some above-the-fray abode of disembodied legal geniuses. 13/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Few today would see much to be proud of in the career and record of Justice Lucius Quintus Lamar. He was selected for the crassest of political reasons - and did little good with his grand opportunity. 12/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

In his short career on the court - he died in 1893 - Lamar wrote only one memorable opinion: his dissent from a case that upheld the authority of the United States to protect a person in federal custody from lynching. 11/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The confirmation vote split on party lines: Democrats voted 29-0 to confirm; Republicans voted 28-2 against. Lamar was elevated to the high court by a majority of the vote; the judicial filibuster had not yet been invented in the 1880s. 10/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

EG The Memphis Daily Appeal, then one of the most important papers in the South, praised him as a worthy successor to Roger Taney and John Campbell - two members of the Dred Scott majority. Campbell had then resigned from the Court to fight for the Confederacy. 9/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The key point for our present purposes: backers of the Lamar nomination made clear at every turn that they were supporting him because of his identity as an unreconstructed ex-Confederate. 8/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

So as you can imagine, there was considerable controversy over the appointment of Lamar to the high court a decade later. Some of that controversy is detailed in this (paywalled) article 7/x https://t.co/BMCeSeRsTZ — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

As a US senator, Lamar led Democrats in sabotaging what little remained of voting rights enforcement in the South after the deal that secured the presidency for Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. 6/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Lamar had been author of the Mississippi ordinance of secession. He served in the Confederate army, then as the CSA's special envoy to seek British and French help in the war. After the war, he fiercely opposed the Reconstruction constitutional amendments. 5/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

So Cleveland nominated Lucius Quintus Lamar of Mississippi, a former senator then serving as Cleveland's secretary of the interior. But Lamar was not just any Mississippian ... 4/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Cleveland had squeaked into office in 1884 by the tiniest of margins. Facing a tough re-elect in 1888 (which he would lose), Cleveland wanted to excite the white conservative Southern base of his Democratic party. The nomination was a chance to try. 3/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland decided the time had come to appoint the first Deep Southerner to the Supreme Court since the civil war. (President Hayes had appointed Kentuckyian John Marshall Harlan in 1877, but Harlan had fought for the Union.) 2/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

It's not a new thing to use Supreme Court appointments to score social "firsts" ... a thread. 1/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @Quillette: This Is About More Than Ukraine | @bstewart1776 https://t.co/4NQF8w51c9 — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @DAlperovitch: Very important issue 👇. In case of war, expect refugees to flood the borders to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Cr… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @petestrzok: “The reality of Russia isn’t the point…The American intellectuals who now find themselves alienated from the country that t… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @TheAtlantic: Four core ideas from President George W. Bush's most controversial speech have survived as enduring foundations of U.S. se… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @kapskom: Honoured to see "Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India" in the reading list of CJP's thoughtful resource guide… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

My latest in ⁦@TheAtlantic⁩ : looking back twenty years later on the “axis of evil” speech https://t.co/3l1slrYUab — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

One of the big Confederate naval raiders retired to Halifax, I learned from John Bacon's great book on the 1917 Halifax explosion ... but mostly the Confederate flag on a Canadian pickup truck just looks weird and wannabe. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

A little of Danielle's sunshine in your email queue every month — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @UrbanAchievr: And note the conservative leaders who signed on, including: - Former Senator and ex-Heritage President Jim DeMint - Exec… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @UrbanAchievr: There was no hedging: "President Donald J. Trump is the lawful winner... state legislatures... should exercise their ple… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @UrbanAchievr: Lots of renewed attention to the so-called "alternate" pro-Trump elector slates. I think it's important to point out th… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @Reuters: EXCLUSIVE: Russia's military buildup near Ukraine has expanded to include supplies of blood along with other medical materials… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @Nat_Vasilyeva: Noteworthy comment from Hungary's FM ahead of Orban's visit to Moscow next week: Hungary's efforts to support Kyiv again… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @joshzepps: Listen, folks. It’s a cracker. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @TheAtlantic: "Russia-Ukraine is becoming a trial of strength, not only between Putin and NATO, but between different parts of the conse… — PolitiTweet.org