Bush speechwriter: Republicans 'work for Fox'

Conservative columnist and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum made waves earlier this week when he announced that the Democrats' passage of health reform amounts to the GOP's "Waterloo."

On ABC's Nightline Monday night, Frum showed that he is clearly not happy with the direction that American conservatism -- at least as embodied in the Republican Party -- has taken.

"Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox," Frum told ABC's Terry Moran. "And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party."

Frum laid the blame for the anger of anti-health reform protesters not with the GOP, but with talk radio and Fox News, which he said was the "real leadership" in setting the terms of the political debate on health care.

"The anger trapped the [Republican] leadership," Frum said, and "the leadership discovered they have no room to maneuver as a result of the anger."

Frum's view of the GOP's electoral prospects seemed dim. "Nobody ever won an election by spitting on his political opponents," he said, evidently referring to the incident this past weekend when anti-health reform protesters spat on Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

The following video was broadcast on ABC's Nightline, Monday March 22, 2009, and uploaded to the Web by MediaMatters.