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David Frum's "Axis of Evil"Authorial vanity strikes the Bush White House.

By Timothy NoahPosted Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002, at 6:49 PM ET

One of the occupational frustrations for established writers who become speechwriters is the absence of a byline. Apparently it's a frustration for their wives, too. Today Chatterbox was forwarded an e-mail apparently sent to family and friends by Danielle Crittenden, wife to White House speechwriter David Frum. Like her husband, Crittenden is a reasonably well-known Washington writer. Here's the e-mail:

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Dear all,
I realize this is very "Washington" of me to mention but my husband is responsible for the "Axis of Evil" segment of Tuesday's State of the Union address. It's not often a phrase one writes gains national notice—unless you're in advertising of course ("The Pause that refreshes")—so I'll hope you'll indulge my wifely pride in seeing this one repeated in headlines everywhere!!
D

Chatterbox e-mailed Crittenden to confirm that she wrote the e-mail. She asked why Chatterbox wanted to know. Chatterbox explained that he was writing about it. Crittenden asked why Chatterbox was writing about it. Chatterbox explained that it was newsworthy. "I don't see why it is newsworthy," she replied. "You are asking about personal correspondence with friends and family. I'm disturbed that anyone would forward personal correspondence to you, and frankly, I think it's wrong of you to write about it."

Sounds like a confirmation!

[Update, Feb. 6: Apparently a Toronto Sun editorial identified Frum as authoring "axis of evil" on Feb. 1. Christopher Hitchens repeated this on MSNBC's Hardball on Feb. 4. In both instances, though, Frum's authorship was merely asserted, not attributed to any source, so it was hard to know whether it was true. The Feb. 11 Time attributes the phrase to both Frum and chief speechwriter Michael Gerson.]

[Update, Feb. 7: Peter Worthington suggests, bafflingly, in his Feb. 6 Toronto Sun column that the Sun learned of David Frum's authoring "axis of evil" by reading Time. This is baffling not only because the Feb. 1 Sun editorial made no mention of Time (or any source), but also because, as noted above, Time credited Frum and Gerson with coining the phrase. The mystery only deepens when one realizes that the Feb. 11 issue of Time couldn't have been seen by anyone prior to Feb. 4, the day it hit the newsstands. The fog begins to lift when Worthington acknowledges in the column that David Frum happens to be his son-in-law. Here's Chatterbox's best guess about how Frum's authorship first came to light: 1) Danielle Crittenden told her father, Peter Worthington, that Frum coined "axis of evil." 2) Worthington told somebody on the Sun's editorial board, which published it. 3) Either Frum or Crittenden informed Worthington that the leak was too traceable to the Frum-Crittenden household, and perhaps chided him for the indiscretion. 4) Worthington tried to cover his tracks by pretending that the Sun got its Frum scoop from Time. Chatterbox has no hypothesis about when it was during this likely sequence that Crittenden sent out her fateful e-mail. Rather endearingly, Crittenden tells Lloyd Grove in the Feb. 7 Washington Post that the whole affair makes her feel "like Lucy Ricardo."]

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.

COMMENTS

Notes From The Fray Editor:

Reproducing an e-mail: right or wrong? Most readers who expressed an opinion (some sample opinions: cad…sleaze…no ethics…shocking) said it was wrong. Shelia made an interesting point, which is that Fray posters are not supposed to post others' private emails without permission: tougher rules for them than for Slate writers? Those who defended the article talked mostly about the phrase 'axis of evil': there was little serious discussion about the ethics of reprinting. Kelly McG was one of several people who had this theory: "I agree that privacy online is important. However, this looks more like an intentional leak made by the administration to take the heat off the pres for the axis remark."

Reader Comments From The Fray:

Hard to believe anyone would actually want to claim credit for the "axis of evil" line. In fact, in the week since the speech, many people have noted that the phrase, inasmuch as it implies that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are acting with some degree of coordination, is intellectually bankrupt. And how many times has an administration had to send out the PR flacks the very day after a State of the Union address to explain "what the president really meant was..."? Why anyone would brag about this debunked phraseology is beyond me.

--Mark Frisk

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

Since the whole point of the phrase was to make it easier to kill people in North Korea, Iran and Iraq-- some of them foes of the United States, some of them schoolchildren, housewives, people operating foodstalls in open marketplaces--Crittenden's wifely pride seems entirely unconnected with any moral sense, insight or intelligence.

Little surprise that she doesn't understand that when you put an e-mail into the Internet, you abandon it to any use that its recipients care to put it to

--Paul Lynch

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

Noah's piece is only a few steps up from rooting-through-garbage journalism. The only thing more reprehensible than his printing someone's private correspondence is the friend or family member that forwarded it.

The only redeeming point that can be made? Crittenden got what she asked for: It's making headlines.

--Persephone

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

Mr. Noah:
In your article, you state that you explained to Ms. Crittenden that her e-mail was newsworthy. Please be so kind as to explain to your readers why her e-mail is newsworthy.

--John Henry

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

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